TechEquity

05/29/2026

It's Friday! Which means it's time for the things you need to read this week to understand tech’s impact on our economy with TechEquity Founder and CEO Catherine Bracy:

1) In the latest EyesOnOpenAI campaign news, the coalition is urging Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate a recent contract between OpenAI and semiconductor company Cerebras Systems. https://ow.ly/TTvf50Z5fr6

2) While an MIT expert warns that AI could grind court systems to a halt, some judges in Southern California are starting to use AI tools to draft and produce research memos. https://ow.ly/qJGc50Z5fr7 & https://ow.ly/cfYh50Z5fr8

3) What happens when venture capital stops subsidizing the AI industry? Like dating apps and ride-hailing companies in the 2010s, we are about to start feeling the AI money squeeze. https://ow.ly/Xevq50Z5fr3

4) Replacing workers with AI: it’s more difficult than executives think, as Starbucks just learned. And perhaps inadvisable and unpopular when it comes to replacing HR specifically. https://ow.ly/fubu50Z5fr4 & https://ow.ly/IKeM50Z5fr9

5) The New York Times Tech Guild alleges that management is using AI surveillance tools to monitor employee performance in violation of its union contract. https://ow.ly/c5Ew50Z5fr5

That's it for this week. Leave your in the comments, and follow us for more news about tech's impact on the economy.

Cerebras and OpenAI recently entered into an agreement for OpenAI to buy computing power and hardware from the semiconductor company.

05/29/2026

Klarna is back to hiring humans as its AI-first strategy backfires. They probably won’t be alone in flipping the switch back to human employees.

Just 1 in 4 AI investments bring in the ROI they promise—but CEOs just can’t resist the technology.

05/28/2026

Everyone loves a discount. But what if a discount isn’t really a discount?

Companies are increasingly setting prices based on the maximum you’re willing to pay, using the data they have on you. They can hide this by adding a “discount” that lowers your custom sticker price, but still charges more than what others pay.

It’s confusing. It’s frustrating. It’s predatory. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Learn more about the Surveillance Pricing Protection Act (AB 2564). https://ow.ly/c4i250Z5fAm

05/28/2026

Almost 50,000 Lake Tahoe residents may lose power in 2027 as a Nevada utility company focuses on providing electricity for data centers.

Lake Tahoe faces power cutoff in 2027 as NV Energy prioritizes AI data centers over 49,000 residents, doubling electricity rates for ski resorts.

05/27/2026

The Musk v Altman jury may have already reached a verdict, but concerns about AI, the businesses that develop and deploy it, and its impact on everyday people are far from over.

Ashley Ortiz wants to see California leadership do something to address them.

05/27/2026

Is your AI ethically sourced? Usually, people ask this question about clothing or food, but AI is also created by a supply chain of humans. These workers collect and annotate data, train and evaluate AI models, and more to make AI seem actually artificial.

But Big Tech doesn’t want you to know about them…

That’s why we recently launched Version 2.0 of our Data Work Landscape. The update includes a new interactive visualization that maps 1,924 relationships between 116 data work companies, surfacing dependencies and concentrations of influence in the landscape.

Check it out: https://ow.ly/tPiP50Z4O1t

05/27/2026

xAI employees haven’t received the promised pay for providing their tax returns as training data for Grok.

Elon Musk’s xAI asked employees earlier this year to offer up their own tax returns as training data for the company’s Grok chatbot, promising a $420 payment as incentive for doing so. Two months later, those payments still haven’t materialized.

05/26/2026

This quote didn’t come from a war correspondent or an emergency room doctor. It came from someone doing data work, a job most of us rarely consider, but one that makes the internet and the AI tools you use better and safer.

Most people have no idea data workers exist. And the companies profiting most from their labor want to keep it that way.

That’s why we recently launched Version 2.0 of our Data Work Landscape—a map of the companies, investors, and client relationships powering the data portion of the AI supply chain. https://ow.ly/fQ7F50Z4kWM

05/26/2026

99% of California businesses are small. It's time our laws supported an economy in which they can thrive. That’s why Yelp just endorsed the COMPETE Act —because they've seen what unchecked monopoly power does to competition firsthand.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/WE2J50Z4u1S

California Labor Federation California Nurses Association Writers Guild of America West Small Business Majority Consumer Federation of California Economic Security Project Action SEIU California Teamsters California

05/26/2026

Our Advocacy team and guest workers had a great time last week working the California Labor Federation's Workers Over Big Tech Billionaires Lobby Day.

They met with legislators and legislative staff on key bills to protect workers in the modern age, including the COMPETE Act (AB 1776) and the Surveillance Pricing Protection Act (AB 2564), both of which are co-sponsored by TechEquity Action.

Learn about other legislation on the docket for TechEquity this year as we try to build a more equitable economy: https://ow.ly/UKSz50Z4kXT