Adam's leaving blog
I joined Connected by Data in January 2023, just months after OpenAI unloaded ChatGPT on the world. Suddenly it seemed that the politics of technology was on everyone’s lips and mine - though often in very different ways.
We sorted through the breathlessness of the hype to figure out whether the foundations of social and political life were really being shaken. I spent a lot of time with podcasts and reading around data and AI - and listening to my colleagues. Three years later, as I step down from Connected by Data to move full time (from part-time) as the TUC’s policy lead on AI, a lot has happened but the uncertainty has barely moved.
Fortunately, Connected by Data had a firm grounding. Founded by Jeni with the premise that what matters most about data and AI are the collective dimensions, stretching beyond individualised rights and technocratic framings. This of course was true before ChatGPT but as a form of automation technology, generative AI does throw up pretty stark and familiar questions; of risk and reward, and who has the power to shape technology. Nowhere is that more apparent than at work. The power relations of working lives have long necessitated the collective endeavour of workers, in workplaces and as a structural countervailing force to other actors, such as employers, big tech and policymakers.
That was the case I made when I joined. And in a manner characteristic of Jeni and of the organisation that I am deeply grateful for, I was given the autonomy and support to build out a deep programme collaborating with unions and the wider labour movement. This included visiting the working men’s clubs at Port Talbot steel works and picket lines at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse, to figuring out how to embed worker voice in Welsh public sector procurement, or support long-term capacity building projects with the CWU in the telecoms sector and with unions representing hundreds of thousands of education workers in partnership with the TUC. These are the experiences that connect the big ideas to the lived realities, and are a powerful check on the temptation to get overly abstract when discussing AI.
This work of building countervailing sources of insight, policy ideas and political power was paired by the development of the Data and AI CSO Network. The Network set out to bring together fragmented, siloed and sometimes competitive civil society and social movement actors into a common space. Not as a formal coalition - which would have scoped out too many participants - but as a forum for exchange of tips and gossip, of expertise and of friendly support; from submitting joint legislative amendments, to amplifying research or co-hosting events. The Network had some pretty high profile interventions, notably the massive open letter ahead of the UK AI Safety Summit that challenged Rishi Sunak’s corporate and ‘existential risk’ dominated event. The letter set out the demands of leading computer scientists, unions representing millions across the world, big brand NGOs and smaller community outfits and businesses to be part of framing and shaping the AI debate. With media from Vanessa Feltz to regional radio and international broadcasters it helped to pull AI’s societal harms into the frame.
More impactfully, though less obviously, the Network has helped to catalyse the relationships and infrastructure that are the prerequisites of any effective movement. This continues, though it’s fair to say that the work of convening disparate groups is a real challenge, and we have learnt as much as we have succeeded!
As I join the TUC full time, the power and centrality of workers is increasingly recognised as vital to the practicalities and politics of AI - in the workplace or at the ballot box. I feel genuinely privileged to have played a role in that. The hopeful shift also underscores a hypothesis Connected by Data was built on: that you can’t understand a technology as an individual or technical challenge only, but one that has powerful collective, political and governance implications.
I still spend a lot of time with podcasts and reading around AI - and listening to my excellent colleagues. Regardless of how the issues unfold, it’s clear in my mind that I will carry as much from the culture of Connected by Data as from the substance of the issue itself: Real autonomy with accountability among colleagues, collaborative and generous with partners and culturally open yet decisively led, with both competence and care - combinations that are all too rare. I aim to emulate this in my next steps - thank you all for the opportunity!
Do reach out at my TUC email or on LinkedIn.