New Book: Platform Extractivism

Dear colleagues,
I’m pleased to share that my book, Platform Extractivism: Data Work and the People Powering Artificial Intelligence, is now available for preorder ahead of its publication on October 20, 2026.
The book examines how the development of datasets for artificial intelligence depends on labor organized through what I call “platform extractivism”: a system that exploits economic instability to capture value from precaritized workers. By reframing AI data work as part of a longer history of extractive relations, the book contributes to debates on the future of work, the political economy of digital platforms, and the hidden costs of AI.
The book can be preordered from the University of California Press here:
https://www.ucpress.edu/books/platform-extractivism/paper
The discount code UCPSAVE30 can be used for 30% off.
I’m also grateful to have received the following endorsements:
“Platform Extractivism is a tour de force, moving adeptly from stories of the data workers behind contemporary AI systems to empirical analysis and theory. This book demonstrates conclusively that our AI systems perpetuate long-standing dynamics of resource extraction, colonialism, and wealth accumulation. But Julián Posada shows that it doesn’t have to be that way as he explores pathways toward more just and livable futures for data workers. Platform Extractivism is required reading.”
—Catherine D’Ignazio, Director, Data + Feminism Lab, and Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning, MIT
“A grounded and uncompromising account of the infrastructures and workers that sustain artificial intelligence. Posada makes clear that platforms are not neutral tools, but engines of extraction.”
—Mark Graham, coauthor of Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labor Powering A.I.
“Platform Extractivism tears apart the promises of AI’s global benefits. It exposes how the industry profits from the precarious economies, cheap labor, territories, public infrastructure, and knowledge of the Global South.”
—Paola Ricaurte Quijano, cofounder, Tierra Común network
Many thanks for sharing this with anyone who may be interested.
Warmly,
Julián Posada

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Julián Posada, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of American Studies
Yale University

https://posada.website/


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