06
Insights
Follow the idea
past the headline.
Essays, analysis and public thinking on the systems beneath technology and development.
Follow the latest on AylgorithFeatured research theme
The political economy of artificial intelligence.
The AI story is usually told through products and benchmarks. The more consequential story sits underneath: capital, labor, energy, compute, institutions and the uneven geography of who gains.
07
Selected reading
Open notebooks.
01 / AI markets
The Attention Extraction Machine
How AI advertising created a vast economy while obscuring the low-paid labor beneath it.
02 / InfrastructureThe Custom AI Gold Rush
Who builds the models, who bears the costs and who profits from the race.
03 / Open ecosystemsThe GitHub for AI Models
A critical look at the labor and incentives beneath essential model infrastructure.
04 / Personal essay21 Times Out!
A memoir about building something without waiting for permission or a fundable label.
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