+ POLICY — Keir Starmer has said ministers should be able to “look every parent in the eye” and pledge that tech can cre…− POLICY — Artificial intelligence poses a “Hiroshima”-style risk to humanity if governments do not agree to curb how it…− CLIMATE — Artificial intelligence is often associated with ludicrous amounts of electricity, and therefore planet-heati…− EDUCATION — While many schools in England have banned smartphones, in Estonia – regarded as the new European education po…− EDUCATION — In a Cambridge classroom, Joseph, 10, trained his AI model to discern between drawings of apples and drawings…− EDUCATION — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently told a US podcast that if he was graduating today, “I would feel like the luck…+ EDUCATION — I disagree with the decision of lecturers to use artificial intelligence to create teaching materials (‘We co…− BUSINESS — Americans are growing worried about what artificial intelligence portends for their futures. Eight in 10 Amer…
TruaceTracing the truth around AISunday, July 12, 2026
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Labor·The Trace·Automated dual reading·Published 2026-07-12

We Are Not Machines by Sarah O’Connor review – can dignity at work survive the tech revolution?

It’s never been easy to land and keep a decent job. But it feels like it’s getting harder. In June, the number of job vacancies in the UK fell to a five-year low; headlines warn of a looming AI-employment shock. What might the future of work look like – and who or what will shape its terms? In her new book, Sarah O’Connor goes looking for answers in the modern collision of artificial intelligence, automation, and human labour. This clash between human and machine – and the fight to secure decent working conditions

TRV-2026-0092JournalismPermanent record — cite & verify
Trace impact reading

Contested: both sides are scored from claims and sources, not community votes.

P 67The P score combines the specificity and measured human impact of the problem claim, the strength of this Trace’s sources, and problem-side source support across the same sector.G 65The G score combines the specificity and measured human impact of the gain claim, the strength of this Trace’s sources, and gain-side source support across the same sector.
We Are Not Machines by Sarah O’Connor review – can dignity at work survive the tech revolution?
The quick read

It’s never been easy to land and keep a decent job. But it feels like it’s getting harder.

In June, the number of job vacancies in the UK fell to a five-year low; headlines warn of a looming AI-employment shock. In her new book, Sarah O’Connor goes looking for answers in the modern collision of artificial intelligence, automation, and human labour.

Main points
  • It’s never been easy to land and keep a decent job.
  • But it feels like it’s getting harder.
  • In June, the number of job vacancies in the UK fell to a five-year low; headlines warn of a looming AI-employment shock.
Gain

Warehouses like EMA4 are supported by remote workers in Costa Rica and India, whose jobs are to monitor video feeds of Amazon shelves, auditing the accuracy of the AI camera systems that track where items are placed.

Problem

O’Connor has been a reporter at the Financial Times for nearly two decades, and although We Are Not Machines looks to the future, many of the threats AI poses to workers’ dignity and safety look a lot like reconfigurations of old battles.

The rundown

In June, the number of job vacancies in the UK fell to a five-year low; headlines warn of a looming AI-employment shock. What might the future of work look like, and who or what will shape its terms?

What this doesn’t fix

Machine-ingested summary: the claims above reflect a single primary source and have not been weighed against contradicting evidence by a Truvace editor yet.

Sources

The debate