If the myth of tech over the past decade has been one of constant innovation, algorithmic scale, and new products and devices that “simply work,” the truth is that all of those illusions were made possible by the obfuscation of labor: the contract content moderators who sanitize the feeds of Facebook and YouTube from violence and extremist content; the warehouse workers at Amazon fulfillment centers trying to meet the guarantees of same-day shipping; the gig workers of all kinds — Uber drivers, food delivery cyclists, Instacart shoppers, among them — all of whom are at the whims of increasingly efficient platforms and wayward legislation.
And that’s not even to speak of the white-collar tech workforce that, while better compensated, is still being taken advantage of by NDAs and mandatory arbitration clauses that keep hidden the realities of discrimination and harassment in the office. But now, some workers across tech companies are organizing for better treatment and pay. Others are making efforts to unionize. Most importantly, the movement will reach everyone who works in tech — and anyone who uses those platforms. The story of the tech industry over the next decade will be the reckoning brought on by its workforce.
Around 60 workers in Los Angeles, New York, Austin, and places outside the US were laid off at TikTok, according to a report from NPR. The layoffs mainly affect workers on TikTok’s sales and advertising teams and follow a string of job cuts from other tech companies this year, including Google, Amazon, Unity, and Discord.
Update January 23rd, 5:16PM ET: Added updated details about the layoffs.
This vibe check comes from an engineer named Diane Hirsh Theriault who has been at the company for over 8 years:
Google does not have one single visionary leader. Not a one. From the C-suite to the SVPs to the VPs, they are all profoundly boring and glassy-eyed.
With rolling layoffs continuing to hit different teams, including the X “moonshot” division today, Theriault writes that “executives are cashing out their human capital at the very moment it seems to me like they really need it.”
[LinkedIn]
Content moderators for the San Francisco-based AI firm Sama — who are based in its Nairobi, Kenya hub — are suing the company and its client Meta, alleging that the job required countless hours of viewing disturbing content, including sexual abuse and grisly murders, according to FT.
The Verge has reported on how AI efforts at companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Meta are supported by “a vast tasker underclass” of workers across Africa, Asia, and South America.
It’s not clear exactly how many Amazon Prime Video and MGM Studios workers are being fired just ten days into the new year, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, the layoffs are coming, and the number in the hundreds.
In a statement about the firings, division head Mike Hopkins described the move as being meant to increase “our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact.”
The Amazon-owned game streaming platform could lay off around 500 workers as soon as Wednesday, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Twitch laid off dozens of workers as part of Amazon’s company-wide cuts last year, and it recently shut down its service in South Korea due to “prohibitively expensive” costs.
Last year SAG-AFTRA signed a landmark new contract with the AMPTP that included protections around AI-generated performances.
Now it’s signed a contract with an AI voice acting company called Replica Studios that it hopes will make licensing AI performances of actors easier — particularly for video games.
Bloomberg reports that a spokesperson for the language learning app said Duolingo doesn’t as many people anymore to perform the contractors’ work, adding that “part of that could be attributed to AI.”
The spokesperson also said AI isn’t a “straight replacement” because workers are already using AI to help them work. Duolingo has long used AI, having incorporated chatbots in 2016 and OpenAI’s Chat GPT-4 early last year.
Hollywood’s entertainment studios seem dead set on incorporating artificial intelligence tools into their production workflows in ways that stand to put people out of jobs.
But during a recent studio executive roundtable discussion, Warner Bros. Animation president Sam Register stressed the importance of protecting human artists “because I think we should give jobs to people who really do that and so they can get their entry-level experience.”
The devastation of 2023’s great video game layoff continues. Today, Versus Evil, a publisher focusing on indie games including The Banner Saga and Pillars of Eternity II, announced that it’s closing — days before the Christmas holidays.
Lance James, head of production at Versus Evil, wrote that the closure “wasn’t a Versus Evil decision or choice” meaning the decision was likely handed down from parent company and Hello Neighbor publisher tinyBuild. Earlier this month, tinyBuild reported impending layoffs in the face of what it called an “incredibly challenging year.” It also received a $2 million dollars investment from Atari just yesterday.
This comes after workers at the eBay-owned TCGPlayer filed a complaint alleging eBay failed to recognize and bargain with the newly formed TCG Union-CWA. The NLRB found merit in these charges, but it’s still waiting to hear eBay’s response before it hands down a final decision.
[Campaign to Organize Digital Employees]
In a memo obtained by CNBC, Etsy CEO Josh Silverman told employees that the handmade marketplace is laying off 11 percent of workers. Silverman cites a “challenging macro and competitive environment,” adding that gross merchandise sales “has remained essentially flat since 2021.”
Microsoft says it’s partnered with the United States’ largest federation of unions in a move that aims to ease workers into a “new AI era.”
That apparently involves AI “learning sessions”, hosting labor summits, and supporting governmental policies that will “equip workers with the essential skills, knowledge and economic support needed to thrive in an AI-powered economy.” Oh, and AI curriculum on LinkedIn tailored to the fields “most impacted by AI.”
A judge had ruled in November that postal workers who, in solidarity with Tesla’s unionized Swedish mechanics, refused to deliver the plates had to let Tesla pick them up. But Fortune writes that another Swedish court overturned the ruling pending a final decision.
The strike began when Tesla refused to bargain with around 120 unionized Swedish mechanics. Soon, other unions joined, including dockworkers and postal workers, then the strike spread to unions in Denmark and Norway.
The lawsuit, which was certified on Friday, is “the largest ever certified under California’s Equal Pay Act,” Variety reports.
VR studio Tender Claws and the Tender Claws Human Union have reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement, and it’s “one of the first union contracts for video game developers in the US,” according to a press release. Proposals in the agreement include pay scales, codifying LGBTQIA+ inclusive benefits, benefits like dental insurance, and codifying virtual reality breaks.
Tender Claws is currently developing Stranger Things VR.
[Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE-CWA)]
Dream Scenario’s Nic Cage wants you to know that there’s a difference between maximalism and pushing the boundaries of filmmaking as an art.
Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted in favor (78.33 percent to 21.67 percent) of the agreement negotiated last month with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) that represents the studios.
The new deal runs through June 30th, 2026, following the first time in 63 years that the unions for actors and writers were on strike at the same time.
SAG-AFTRA:
The deal includes more than $1 billion in new compensation and benefit plan funding, along with outsized gains to the traditional residuals formulas. It offers a new compensation model for performers working in streaming, with a substantial bonus on top of existing residuals structures, plus compensation escalation for principal and background actors. Additionally, the deal establishes detailed informed consent and compensation guardrails for the use of AI, hair and makeup equity, meaningful protections for the casting process, sexual harassment prevention protections and more.
In 2016, an employee sued Google for having too strict of a confidentiality program, which allegedly discouraged workers from reporting illegal activity in violation of California’s labor laws.
Google’s decision to settle means the majority of the $27 million will go to the state of California, while employees will get anywhere from $20 to $70, according to Semafor. A Google spokesperson tells the publication “that resolution of the matter, without any admission of wrongdoing, is in the best interest of everyone.”
It still isn’t entirely clear how the advent of AI filmmaking tech is going to disrupt the entertainment industry.
But it feels pretty significant that Amazon reportedly fired longtime producer Joel Silver not of his alleged harassment towards female executives, but as retaliation in response to his refused to “Use artificial intelligence to finish a movie during the strike.
