Tech – LPE Project https://lpeproject.org The Law and Political Economy Project Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:45:57 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 https://lpeproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-LPE_Favicon_512px_BlackBG-450x450.png Tech – LPE Project https://lpeproject.org 32 32 Nursing on Demand: The Gig Economy Comes for Health Care https://lpeproject.org/blog/nursing-on-demand-the-gig-economy-comes-for-health-care/ Mon, 30 Jun 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11679 In 2013, Tim Maughan published a short story called Zero Hours, which describes a day in the life of Nicki, a 19-year-old zero-hour contract worker. Before Nicki gets out of bed, she grabs her tablet and bids “like mad” on various retail shifts. Eventually, she secures shifts at Pret-a-Manager and Boots, a beauty and pharmacy chain—though both shifts pay below the national minimum wage.

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]]> Tech’s Turn to Trump was a Labor Story, and the Response Should be Too https://lpeproject.org/blog/techs-turn-to-trump-was-a-labor-story-and-the-response-should-be-too/ Thu, 19 Jun 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11650 As Elon Musk yoked his public persona to far-right politics, there was consternation in the liberal media. How could an entrepreneur who builds electric cars in California turn into a Trump-saluting Texan? Numerous think pieces offered to disentangle the threads of his psychology, his fascist family history, or whatever else might explain the otherwise inexplicable. In reality...

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]]> Some of the Best New LPE and LPE-Adjacent Scholarship https://lpeproject.org/blog/some-of-the-best-new-lpe-and-lpe-adjacent-scholarship-2/ Thu, 22 May 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11591 With summer just around the corner, are you looking to indulge in some juicy, page-turning scholarship? As always, the Blog has you covered. So throw those Capri-Suns in a cooler, grab your favorite e-reader, and load up some of our favorite forthcoming LPE and LPE-adjacent articles for your next trip to the beach, park, or (let’s be real) library. ** ** ** Sahil Agrawal, Melissa Barber...

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]]> The Right Understands That All Governance Is Data Governance https://lpeproject.org/blog/the-right-understands-that-all-governance-is-data-governance/ Mon, 12 May 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11573 During the rapidly unfolding constitutional crisis of the past three months, nearly every day has brought a new, alarming development. While many of these actions — tariffs imposed on uninhabited islands, the “mistaken” letter of demands sent to Harvard, Hegseth’s texting habits — reflect an equal combination of incompetence and malice, two of the most worrying developments appear more strategic...

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]]> Beyond Redistribution: Rethinking UBI and the Politics of Automation https://lpeproject.org/blog/beyond-redistribution-rethinking-ubi-and-the-politics-of-automation/ Wed, 07 May 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11562 Without a Department of Education, who will assist the borrowers of billions of dollars of student aid? Without Social Security field offices or Internal Revenue Service staff, who will administer benefits or investigate tax fraud? And with a massively reduced workforce at the General Services Administration, who will handle the procurement of more than $84 billion of products and services for...

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]]> Antimonopoly and Artificial Intelligence https://lpeproject.org/blog/antimonopoly-and-artificial-intelligence/ Mon, 28 Apr 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11530 In the last few months, two major events in the world of artificial intelligence have raised the temperature in the AI arms race. The first was technical: the launch of Chinese firm Deepseek’s AI model. American AI giants like OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, and Google were caught flat footed by a small Chinese firm which met or exceeded their AI performance with a fraction of the resources.

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]]> You’re Paying Big Tech’s Power Bill https://lpeproject.org/blog/youre-paying-big-techs-power-bill/ Tue, 18 Mar 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11430 The world’s wealthiest corporations are investing staggering amounts of capital in data centers. In fiscal year 2025 alone, Amazon will likely spend $105 billion on data center investments, Microsoft anticipates investing approximately $80 billion to build out data center infrastructure, and Meta predicts investing between $60 and $65 billion to meet its artificial intelligence goals.

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]]> The TikTok Ban and the Limits of the First Amendment https://lpeproject.org/blog/the-tiktok-ban-and-the-limits-of-the-first-amendment/ Wed, 22 Jan 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11219 Last week, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the constitutionality of a federal law that bans the distribution of TikTok in the United States unless and until it is sold to a new owner. The Court upheld the law after applying a remarkably deferential version of the intermediate scrutiny standard that courts apply in First Amendment cases to content-neutral regulations of speech.

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]]> From the Vault: LPE & Tech https://lpeproject.org/blog/from-the-vault-lpe-tech/ Thu, 12 Dec 2024 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11069 This post is part of a series highlighting some of our favorite entries from the archives. Read the rests of the posts here. *** Christmas comes early at the Blog this year. No, our bonus wasn’t big enough to buy you the hottest new gadget. But after sending our student editors deep into the LPE vault, we bring you something even more valuable: ten classic posts on how technology shapes our...

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]]> Your Boss is Probably Spying on You: New Data on Workplace Surveillance https://lpeproject.org/blog/your-boss-is-probably-spying-on-you-new-data-on-workplace-surveillance/ Mon, 25 Nov 2024 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=10997 Worker advocates, journalists, and policymakers have, in recent years, drawn attention to the rise of continuous electronic surveillance in American workplaces. From AI-powered cameras tracking truckers’ attentiveness to handheld scanners monitoring Amazon warehouse workers’ speed of packing and sorting packages to videoconferencing software keeping tabs on workers’ conversations while in meetings...

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