As Ranabir Sammadar argues, “For capital this is the desirable history of labour—labour at work but not visible, ready at hand but not always necessary, labour living but, whenever required, soon dead.” The last part of the quote might sound like an exaggeration, except when we begin to consider the role of automation. The prediction that technology would bring about the end of unfulfilling labor does not seem to be unfolding according to the hopes of economists. Automation and AI technologies, which many corporations in the social quantification sector actively develop and promote, seem to be designed to eliminate laborers, not liberate them.

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 239