Stories and links that are of interest or relevance to leaders, advocates, strategists, campaigners and organisers.
Unions and union growth
The small pro-labor news site that has the Biden White House’s ear (paywall)
In behind-the-scenes planning talks, More Perfect Union played a role in the president’s visit to a picket line.
The Winners and Losers of the Writers Strike
The WGA, David Zaslav, that Teamster leader with the cool tattoos. Here’s how everybody fared during Hollywood’s existential crisis.
Nina Turner Launches Organization to Support Striking Workers
The former Ohio state senator and Bernie Sanders surrogate said she was inspired by the nearly two-yearlong Alabama coal miners strike.
Come For the Newsletter, Stay For the Discord: Why Some Newsletters Have Private Communities for Their Subscribers.
Building a community through Discord or Slack could be a way to deepen engagement with readers and drive additional revenue. But it comes with a lot of work — and some potential headaches.
Retention economics: from churn management to relationship management
This is a summary of the recently published Retention Economics report, collaboratively written by Kevin Anderson, Consulting Director at Pugpig, and
Workers’ rights
75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers walk off the job. It’s the largest health care worker strike in US history
On Wednesday, more than 75,000 unionized employees of Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health providers, walked off the job, marking the largest health care worker strike in US history.
Gen Z workers aren’t afraid to broadcast their salary—or tell their boss what they think of them—new research shows
Adobe surveyed over 1,000 U.S. Gen Z workers and concluded that they’re “not shy about using their voice”.
Data and worker privacy
Thanks to Big Data, Landlords Know How to Squeeze the Most Out of Renters
Two firms face allegations that rent-pricing systems facilitate collusion among some big apartment owners.
The Twisted Eye in the Sky Over Buenos Aires
A scandal unfolding in Argentina shows the dangers of implementing facial recognition—even with laws and limits in place.
AI and the future of work
Millions of Workers Are Training AI Models for Pennies
From the Philippines to Colombia, low-paid workers label training data for AI models used by the likes of Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.
Biden seeks to rein in AI
An executive order gives AI companies the guardrails they asked for. Will the US go further?
How Silicon Valley AI tech hiring causes skills shortages in critical research fields
“So it was a bit disheartening but also oh so familiar, to read that small and midsized CDMOs are struggling to attract the skilled folk required to enable automation of production lines, visual inspection, quality control and processing, and preventative maintenance of equipment.”
Big Tech Struggles to Turn AI Hype Into Profits
Generative artificial-intelligence tools are unproven and expensive to operate, requiring muscular servers with expensive chips that consume lots of power. Microsoft, Google, Adobe and other companies are experimenting with an array of tactics to make, market and charge for AI.
Facebook Trains Its AI on Your Data. Opting Out May Be Futile
Here’s how to request that your personal information not be used to train Meta’s AI model. “Request” is the operative word here.
ChatGPT use shows that the grant-application system is broken
The fact that artificial intelligence can do much of the work makes a mockery of the process. It’s time to make it easier for scientists to ask for research funding.
How AI reduces the world to stereotypes
Rest of World analyzed 3,000 AI images to see how image generators visualize different countries and cultures.
Predictive Policing Software Terrible At Predicting Crimes
A software company sold a New Jersey police department an algorithm that was right less than 1% of the time
Campaigning, organising and digital/social media
Social media traffic to top news sites craters
Website business models that depended on clicks from social media are now broken.
As 2024 Looms, Democrats’ Campaign Tech Crumbles Under Private Equity Squeeze
Democratic campaign tech monopoly Bonterra — formed by private equity consolidated NGP VAN, EveryAction, and others — crumbles under layoffs.
Six Months Ago NPR Left Twitter. The Effects Have Been Negligible
The numbers confirm what many of us have long suspected — that Twitter wasn’t worth the effort, at least in terms of traffic.
Republicans’ old-school campaign
“Republican candidates have dropped the ball when it comes to basic online campaign tactics”
What You Need to Know About Generative AI’s Emerging Role in Political Campaigns
Chatbots powered by large language models like ChatGPT could enable deception on a large scale.
Biden team launches organizing pilot project
The reelection effort is focused on recruiting large numbers of volunteers to use their own relationships to spread the Biden message directly.
Society, media, news and culture
Why fact-checking fails to stop deepfakes
Labeling posts only goes so far — but that doesn’t mean platforms should give up
How the conspiracy-fueled Epoch Times went mainstream and made millions
The conservative news outlet has amassed a fortune, growing its revenue by 685% in two years, according to tax documents.
Biden campaign to launch account on Trump’s Truth Social
‘There’s very little ‘truth’ happening on Truth Social, but at least now it’ll be a little fun,’ Biden campaign tells Fox News Digital
