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Managed By Machine: A Socialist Guide to AI and the Future of Work
The robots aren't coming for your job. Your boss is using them against you.Every week brings new headlines about AI taking over—but the real story isn't about technology. It's about power. Who owns the machines? Who profits from automation? And who's left behind when "efficiency" means firing half the workforce?
Managed by Machine cuts through the hype and fear to reveal what's actually happening to workers right
Warehouse workers tracked by scanners that fire them automatically for being too slowCall center employees monitored for "emotional tone" by AI that never blinksArtists and writers whose life's work was scraped without consent to train the systems replacing themGig workers algorithmically managed by apps designed to crush any hint of worker powerThis isn't science fiction. This is Monday morning.
In plain English and with dark humor, Levi Kavan exposes the new world of algorithmic management, explains why fifty years of productivity gains never gave us more free time, and lays out a democratic socialist vision for a future where technology actually serves the people who use it.
Forget "learning to code." Forget "upskilling." The only real solution is collective power—shorter workweeks, public AI, universal services, and the organizing strategies that can win them.
The robot isn't your enemy. The billionaire who owns it is. This book shows you how to take it back.
"The most accessible and furious book about AI and labor I've ever read."
Inside you'll
How algorithmic management has spread far beyond Uber drivers to every industryThe hidden workers whose trauma powers AI's "magic"Why we're working harder than ever despite all our time-saving technologyThe four-day workweek movement and how unions are already winning AI protectionsConcrete steps you can take—starting Monday—to fight backIf you're worried about AI, angry about your job, or just wondering why the future feels so precarious, this book is for you.
Managed by Machine cuts through the hype and fear to reveal what's actually happening to workers right
Warehouse workers tracked by scanners that fire them automatically for being too slowCall center employees monitored for "emotional tone" by AI that never blinksArtists and writers whose life's work was scraped without consent to train the systems replacing themGig workers algorithmically managed by apps designed to crush any hint of worker powerThis isn't science fiction. This is Monday morning.
In plain English and with dark humor, Levi Kavan exposes the new world of algorithmic management, explains why fifty years of productivity gains never gave us more free time, and lays out a democratic socialist vision for a future where technology actually serves the people who use it.
Forget "learning to code." Forget "upskilling." The only real solution is collective power—shorter workweeks, public AI, universal services, and the organizing strategies that can win them.
The robot isn't your enemy. The billionaire who owns it is. This book shows you how to take it back.
"The most accessible and furious book about AI and labor I've ever read."
Inside you'll
How algorithmic management has spread far beyond Uber drivers to every industryThe hidden workers whose trauma powers AI's "magic"Why we're working harder than ever despite all our time-saving technologyThe four-day workweek movement and how unions are already winning AI protectionsConcrete steps you can take—starting Monday—to fight backIf you're worried about AI, angry about your job, or just wondering why the future feels so precarious, this book is for you.
155 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2026
About the author
Levi Kavan
3 booksLevi Kavan writes about economics, labor, and technology for readers who want real answers instead of slogans. His work draws on political economy, labor history, and the experiences of workers navigating systems designed to keep them too busy to ask uncomfortable questions.
Before writing full-time, Levi spent years in workplaces where he saw firsthand the gap between what economics textbooks promised and what actually showed up in people's paychecks. That experience convinced him the most important political ideas were being explained badly, or not at all.
He's the author of How To Be a Democratic Socialist, Democratic Socialism, Explained, and Managed by Machine. His writing has been called "rigorous but actually readable" by people who expected to be bored.
Levi lives in the Midwest, where he reads too much history, maintains an unnecessarily elaborate note-taking system, and remains cautiously optimistic that ordinary people can build something better than this.
Before writing full-time, Levi spent years in workplaces where he saw firsthand the gap between what economics textbooks promised and what actually showed up in people's paychecks. That experience convinced him the most important political ideas were being explained badly, or not at all.
He's the author of How To Be a Democratic Socialist, Democratic Socialism, Explained, and Managed by Machine. His writing has been called "rigorous but actually readable" by people who expected to be bored.
Levi lives in the Midwest, where he reads too much history, maintains an unnecessarily elaborate note-taking system, and remains cautiously optimistic that ordinary people can build something better than this.
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