Opinion | Tech Workers Have Fears About A.I., Too. They Can Do Something About It.

Oh, how marvellous. Tech workers are finally unionising over AI fears — because nothing says 'workplace revolution' like a union that management can legally ignore. The Alphabet Workers Union, which has roughly as much power as a soggy paper clip, and the plucky Kickstarter staffers who bravely formed a union in 2020, are held up as templates. Because if there's one thing that terrifies Silicon Valley executives, it's a few hundred workers in a Slack channel complaining about ethical guidelines.

Let's be frank: Alphabet's union has been around since 2021, and in that time Google has laid off thousands, launched a dozen half-baked AI products, and fired the entire ethical AI team. The union's response? A strongly worded statement. Meanwhile, Kickstarter's union got voluntary recognition, which in practice means they get to attend meetings where management explains why their concerns are noted but not actionable. But sure, this is 'something' workers can do.

The opinion piece pretends that organising gives workers real leverage over AI's direction. In reality, the people building these systems are terrified of being automated themselves, and their union dues won't stop that. The only thing worse than having no voice is having a voice that nobody has to listen to. But please, do go on about the incremental victories.