Examining Solidarity Against AI-Enabled Surveillance at the Intersection of Workplace and Carceral Realities

TL;DR

The paper addresses the problem of AI-enabled surveillance expanding across both workplace and carceral spaces and argues for cross-space solidarity to resist these pervasive technologies. It adopts a two-pronged approach: a preliminary analysis of intersections between workplace and carceral surveillance using data from the CMU Tech Solidarity Lab and existing literature, followed by plans to broaden data collection from a carceral perspective and to facilitate restorative justice discussions. Key contributions include identifying concrete crossovers such as Rite-Aid's facial recognition use, Amazon's access to law-enforcement tools, and Veriato's monitoring of parolees, along with a proposed community-facing framework for cross-movement solidarity and resistance. The work highlights the societal and policy relevance of dual-use surveillance architectures and outlines a path for activist engagement to mitigate AI-driven surveillance across these intertwined spaces.

Abstract

As panoptical, AI-driven surveillance becomes a norm, everyone is impacted. In a reality where all people fall victim to these technologies, establishing links and solidarity is essential to fighting back. Two groups facing rising and targeted surveillance are workers and individuals impacted by the carceral system. Through preliminary data collection from a worker-surveillance lens, our findings reveal several cases of these surveillance infrastructures intersecting. Continuation of our work will involve collecting cases from a carceral-centered lens. Driven by a community-facing analysis of the overlap in the AI-driven surveillance experienced by workers and individuals impacted by the carceral system, we will facilitate discussions with restorative justice activists around cultivating solidarity and empowerment focused on the interconnected nature of workplace and carceral surveillance technologies.