This week on Techish, Michael and Abadesi unpack how the changing political landscape is shaping career goals for top university grads. They also dive into Big Tech’s ties to the military-industrial complex, reflect on the ‘good old days’ of internet journalism, and the debate about tackling wealth inequality. Chapters 00:25 Stanford Grads Are Ditching Big Tech for Defense07:57 Nostalgia for BuzzFeed-Era Journalism10:20 The Pressure to Perform Success13:31 Gary Stevenson and Taxing the Super Rich Listen to the episode You can find the Techish podcast on Spotify, Apple, and all good podcast
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with major tech giants in a case concerning the alleged use of child labor in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). According to Reuters, in a unanimous 3-0 decision, the court ruled that these companies, including Apple and Tesla, cannot be held liable for their involvement in cobalt sourcing. Cobalt sourcing is critical in producing lithium-ion batteries essential for numerous electronics and electric vehicles. The Lawsuit The lawsuit, brought forward by former child miners and
Big Tech companies are being probed about the treatment of their “ghost workers” by Democratic lawmakers. Ghost work refers to the undervalued, underpaid, and undersupported human labor utilized to develop and maintain the automation of websites and apps. This work is often outsourced, hidden, or rendered invisible by the tech companies who request it. With the rise of generative AI, this work often includes training and improving algorithms. According to Just Tech, ghost workers are usually vulnerable people from Asia, Latin America and Africa who are being paid less than
Kenyan content moderators who removed harmful content produced by OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT, have petitioned the country’s lawmakers to investigate the nature of their work. The petitioners are calling for an investigation into the “nature of the work, the conditions of the work, and the operations” of the Big Tech companies that outsource services in Kenya through companies like Sama. Sama has been hit with several litigations on alleged exploitation, union-busting, and illegal mass layoffs of content moderators. The workers are asking lawmakers to “regulate the outsourcing of harmful and dangerous
