Siri Beerends

Siri Beerends is a cultural sociologist, investigating the societal impact of digital technologies in collaboration with artistic design researchers at SETUP Media Lab. Her journalistic approach enables her to spur public debate about datafication and AI-technologies. Her PhD research (University of Twente) focuses on authenticity and the question how AI is decreasing the differences between humans and machines.

Talk: AI’s dirty secret – human labour is not disappearing, it is being hidden

“In the future, intelligent robots will do all the dirty and boring work so people can finally start living their lives in a meaningful way”. You might be familiar with this great promise, but what if it is the other way around? A world where people are doing the dirty and boring work, to enable robots to act in a meaningful way. A world of invisible labour and new forms of inequality.