AI at Work: Automation, Surveillance and the Future of Jobs

Artificial intelligence is often discussed as a force that will replace workers. In many workplaces, the more immediate shift is different: digital systems are already changing how work is organized, monitored and judged.

This year’s Ian P. Sharp Lecture, hosted by the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, brings together Yochai Benkler of Harvard Law School and Karen Levy of Cornell University for a timely public conversation on automation, workplace surveillance and the future of jobs. In conversation with moderator Vera Khovanskaya of the University of Toronto, they will explore how data-driven systems are reshaping the way work is assigned, measured and managed.

Join us on May 12, 2026 for a discussion on how these systems are reorganizing workplaces, shifting power and changing the future of work.

Karen Levy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Information Science at Cornell University, with an affiliate appointment at Cornell Law School and field faculty roles in Sociology, Science and Technology Studies, Media Studies, and Data Science. Her research examines the legal, social, organizational, and ethical dimensions of data‑intensive technologies, with particular attention to digital rule enforcement, inequality, workplace surveillance, and the use of data in intimate relationships as tools of both care and control. She is the author of Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance (Princeton University Press, 2022).

Yochai Benkler is the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School and faculty co‑director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. His work examines information commons, decentralized collaboration, and their implications for innovation, markets, and freedom in networked societies. He is the author of The Wealth of Networks (Yale University Press, 2006), an award‑winning book widely recognized for its impact on scholarship, public policy, and public understanding of the Internet.

Vera Khovanskaya is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information. Prior to joining the Faculty of Information, she was a CRA Computing Innovations Fellow at the University of California, San Diego, where she was a member of the Just Transitions Initiative, the Feminist Labor Lab, and the Design Lab. Her research examines the impacts of data collection in the workplace, the opportunities and challenges of data-driven approaches to worker advocacy, and the barriers to worker-centered and community-driven technology design. Prior to her current role, she organized with UAW 5810 and Cornell Graduate Students United.

Kenzie Burchell is a media sociologist and Assistant Professor of Journalism at the University of Toronto, with appointments in the Faculty of Information and the Department of Arts, Culture and Media, and an affiliate role at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. His research examines communication overload, surveillance, and platform technologies, focusing on how media practices shape everyday life, journalism, and political processes.

Info: Light refreshments will be served.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Sam Sorbara Auditorium St. Michael’s College, 81 Saint Mary Street, Toronto, Canada

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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