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We Are Not Machines: The Fight for the Future of Work
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Expected 11 Aug 26Automation was supposed to free us. Instead, what if it is turning us into robots? An investigation into the real impact of AI and automation on work—through the eyes of those living it.
From Czech subtitlers and Amazon warehouse strikers to ex-journalists in data farms, this is a vivid, urgent look at what happens when human labor becomes machine-compatible. Human Robots asks the question no algorithm can what kind of future do we want for ourselves—and our souls?
Drawing on interviews, site visits, and lived experiences, the author illuminates abstract debates with real human stories. Taken together, they reveal that the dream of freedom through technology is being reversed. Rather than liberating people, many new systems impose faster, lonelier, and more micromanaged labor.
As Sarah O’Connor writes, “Automation was meant to do away with dull, dirty, dangerous tasks. It was meant to free us up for more interesting and creative work. So why was my notebook filling up with stories of good jobs turned bad, and bad jobs turned worse? These people were not being liberated by machines. Instead, they were being crunched into systems run by machines and paced by machines, in which important concepts such as fairness, intelligence, even human-ness itself, were being quietly redefined by machines. And that left me with a question. A question that prompted me to write this book. We think we’re robotising our work, but what if we’re actually robotising ourselves?
From Czech subtitlers and Amazon warehouse strikers to ex-journalists in data farms, this is a vivid, urgent look at what happens when human labor becomes machine-compatible. Human Robots asks the question no algorithm can what kind of future do we want for ourselves—and our souls?
Drawing on interviews, site visits, and lived experiences, the author illuminates abstract debates with real human stories. Taken together, they reveal that the dream of freedom through technology is being reversed. Rather than liberating people, many new systems impose faster, lonelier, and more micromanaged labor.
As Sarah O’Connor writes, “Automation was meant to do away with dull, dirty, dangerous tasks. It was meant to free us up for more interesting and creative work. So why was my notebook filling up with stories of good jobs turned bad, and bad jobs turned worse? These people were not being liberated by machines. Instead, they were being crunched into systems run by machines and paced by machines, in which important concepts such as fairness, intelligence, even human-ness itself, were being quietly redefined by machines. And that left me with a question. A question that prompted me to write this book. We think we’re robotising our work, but what if we’re actually robotising ourselves?
248 pages, Hardcover
First published June 4, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
We Are Not Machines: The Fight for the Future of Work is, despite its name, a hopeful book. The dominant fear today about AI is that machines will take our jobs. Author Sarah O'Connor's concern is that the more immediate harm is that work is being reshaped to make humans more machine-like: more surveilled, more paced, more repetitive, more isolated, with less judgment, creativity, and autonomy. As she writes, "The real danger isn't that we make machines in our image, but that we silently remake ourselves in theirs."
O'Connor, an associate editor at the Financial Times who pens a weekly column about the world of work, has written a series of case studies, including TV subtitle translators reduced to editing AI output, Amazon warehouse workers adapting to ever more autonomous warehouses, job candidates being interviewed by AI software, and long-haul truck drivers grappling with fragmented work and the threat of self-driving trucks. She also documents counter-examples where workers shaped the technology and its implementation to make work better rather than worse. Nurses in the Netherlands, for instance, rejected the Taylorized approach to home healthcare and developed a new model that delivers both better healthcare and better healthcare jobs.
More important than the discussion of technology is the discussion of the politics and design of work. As she writes,
My biggest critique is whether O'Connor's success stories can be generalized. Three of her hopeful cases (a Swedish mine, Dutch nurses, and the Writers Guild of America) come from contexts with unusual institutional leverage: codetermination law, social-democratic regulation, or guild-specific bargaining power. Another, a long-haul trucker who quit to start a gravesite maintenance business, is an individual exit. None of these offers a clear path for the millions of workers whose labor markets are shaped more by competition than by collective voice. O'Connor's diagnosis is global. Her prescriptions are not. The subtitle promises a fight, and a fight requires a theory of how it's won outside the contexts where it already has been.
None of that diminishes what the book does well. O'Connor pays attention to actual work, which most books in the genre don't. The book's most important readers aren't the workers she profiles or the policymakers she addresses, but the managers, executives, and technologists making deployment decisions every day. As one of those readers, I found her diagnosis sharp and uncomfortable in the right ways.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy. All views are mine and mine alone. Other than a free copy of this book, I was not compensated for this review.
O'Connor, an associate editor at the Financial Times who pens a weekly column about the world of work, has written a series of case studies, including TV subtitle translators reduced to editing AI output, Amazon warehouse workers adapting to ever more autonomous warehouses, job candidates being interviewed by AI software, and long-haul truck drivers grappling with fragmented work and the threat of self-driving trucks. She also documents counter-examples where workers shaped the technology and its implementation to make work better rather than worse. Nurses in the Netherlands, for instance, rejected the Taylorized approach to home healthcare and developed a new model that delivers both better healthcare and better healthcare jobs.
More important than the discussion of technology is the discussion of the politics and design of work. As she writes,
"Technological change is not actually analogous to a natural phenomenon like a 'tsunami' that is sweeping towards us whether we like it or not. For technology companies, which want to head off the threat of regulation, these are very useful metaphors in their conversations with policymakers. Nobody want to look like the fool who thinks you can hold back the tide. But, as the stories in this book make clear, technology is designed by people, made by people, and adopted by people. (emphasis mine)"
My biggest critique is whether O'Connor's success stories can be generalized. Three of her hopeful cases (a Swedish mine, Dutch nurses, and the Writers Guild of America) come from contexts with unusual institutional leverage: codetermination law, social-democratic regulation, or guild-specific bargaining power. Another, a long-haul trucker who quit to start a gravesite maintenance business, is an individual exit. None of these offers a clear path for the millions of workers whose labor markets are shaped more by competition than by collective voice. O'Connor's diagnosis is global. Her prescriptions are not. The subtitle promises a fight, and a fight requires a theory of how it's won outside the contexts where it already has been.
None of that diminishes what the book does well. O'Connor pays attention to actual work, which most books in the genre don't. The book's most important readers aren't the workers she profiles or the policymakers she addresses, but the managers, executives, and technologists making deployment decisions every day. As one of those readers, I found her diagnosis sharp and uncomfortable in the right ways.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy. All views are mine and mine alone. Other than a free copy of this book, I was not compensated for this review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I read this book mainly because, for some time now, I’ve been thinking a lot about how AI is going to impact the world we live in. People who stand to gain from the widespread adoption of AI can’t help but tell us that this is just like any other technological progress that has happened over the past centuries, but this time feels different, at least to me. Not to mention that even if the world eventually stabilizes, there will likely be a period of deep unrest. Very selfishly, I do not want that period of unrest to coincide with the years when I am working and earning for myself.
This book couldn’t have come at a better time. It gave me a much deeper appreciation for how humans are thinking about AI. We might argue all day that AI’s job is to take over the boring parts of work or tasks that are unsafe for human beings. But eventually, AI adoption is not going to be driven by people who care about humans; it will be driven by people who care about profits, as has always been the case.
This book was a timely reminder of how AI is already impacting diverse industries such as education, palliative care, mining, and, of course, translation and how human beings are still being human beings, showing resilience and perseverance in the way they continue to live their lives.
I think this will be the ultimate test of how we want human beings to live, because AI is not just eroding work itself; it is also eroding the sense of pride and identity that many of us associate with our work. Whether that is good or bad is a debate for another time. It is also eroding the money we earn from working, money that enables us to do whatever we want in this world, so it feels like a double whammy.
This book will make you think deeply about these questions and whether we might want to take things into our own hands.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley but it doesn't impact my opinion in any way.
This book couldn’t have come at a better time. It gave me a much deeper appreciation for how humans are thinking about AI. We might argue all day that AI’s job is to take over the boring parts of work or tasks that are unsafe for human beings. But eventually, AI adoption is not going to be driven by people who care about humans; it will be driven by people who care about profits, as has always been the case.
This book was a timely reminder of how AI is already impacting diverse industries such as education, palliative care, mining, and, of course, translation and how human beings are still being human beings, showing resilience and perseverance in the way they continue to live their lives.
I think this will be the ultimate test of how we want human beings to live, because AI is not just eroding work itself; it is also eroding the sense of pride and identity that many of us associate with our work. Whether that is good or bad is a debate for another time. It is also eroding the money we earn from working, money that enables us to do whatever we want in this world, so it feels like a double whammy.
This book will make you think deeply about these questions and whether we might want to take things into our own hands.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley but it doesn't impact my opinion in any way.
Review of advance copy
My dad saw the author give a talk at a conference and immediately knew the book would be up my alley. After just finishing university and a dissertation on how candidate AI use is changing the recruitment industry, this felt like the perfect book to read to tie up 4 years of university and it delivered!
I really enjoyed the authors anecdotal writing style, and its focus on the actual human experience. Most books on AI seem to firmly take one polarising stance, so I loved the nuance this book brought to the discussion, making concessions to either side and giving an actually realistic picture of how AI is affecting us. This is one of the first books on AI I’ve seen that actually speaks to the people most affected, instead of focusing solely on Silicon Valleys opinion.
I demolished this book in a day and found myself physically nodding along with the author at some points- 5 star read for me!
I really enjoyed the authors anecdotal writing style, and its focus on the actual human experience. Most books on AI seem to firmly take one polarising stance, so I loved the nuance this book brought to the discussion, making concessions to either side and giving an actually realistic picture of how AI is affecting us. This is one of the first books on AI I’ve seen that actually speaks to the people most affected, instead of focusing solely on Silicon Valleys opinion.
I demolished this book in a day and found myself physically nodding along with the author at some points- 5 star read for me!
June 1, 2026
What I thought was going to be a read purely about the damages and issues AI is causing in the job market (or the world more broadly) turned out to be an insightful analysis on the place of machines in the modern age. Not my usual genre but a worthwhile and intriguing read nevertheless.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews