Tales of Work in the Age of The Blind Watchmakers(AI): An anthological & mixed-methods study of the clashes of schools of thought and public perceptions

It would not be an overstatement to demarcate this decade as the Age of AI, considered a hype or monomania by some and the path towards singularity by others. Whichever may be the case, the purpose of this work is to set aside these mythical, tale-like futures and to focus on others, also tale-like, but definitely less bound to sci-fi tropes. This study aims to explore in an anthological manner the perceptions of young people (18-35) regarding the impact of AI on the world of work. It seeks to provide a broad and multifaceted view of work, highlighting differing perspectives among various schools of thought and analytical models, with a focus on the quality of work. AI is viewed as a sociotechnical system and is analyzed as such. In fact, the case is made that AI is a labour-centered sociotechnical system that is constructed by and in turn constructs new forms of work. Theoretical analytical models are confronted with the perceptions of young people, primarily from Italy, Albania, and Kosova, with some additional data from other countries. Perception analyses are of imperative importance because, irrespective of which theory best describes phenomena and prescribes solutions in “objective” terms, what materializes in the convictions of society, and consequently in policies and political realities, is largely dependent on what people perceive. This research uses a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative interviews with quantitative survey analysis through data science techniques such as assessing statistical significance, exploring correlations, and performing classification tasks. While established European datasets are used, the majority of the analysis relies on an original dataset collected specifically for this study between September 2023 and December 2024. The data-collection process went as follows: 76 initial interviews (1.5 hrs on average) were made to co-design with the young people the questions for the online survey. The first online survey had 72 questions and resulted in 104 data points. In order to increase the cardinality of the dataset, a subset of these questions was chosen and a second survey was disseminated, which resulted in 111 data points. Finally, a last set of 36 interviews was made for questions that required elaboration and were not fit for the online surveys format. Storytelling is integrated to map the conceptual landscape and allow for proper science communication towards the wider public. The outline is set as a storyline, situated in the mythical-real city of Berat, Albania and notions from the Albanian author Kadare and his work “The Palace of Dreams” are employed. The first 3 chapters are situated in the Mangalem neighborhood of the mythical-real city, namely: Chapters 2 and 3, Tales of Work and Tales of Artificial Intelligence, which serve as a foundational exploration before examining the impact of AI on work in Chapter 4. In this part, concepts and analytical models are confronted with the perceptions of young people, without the author making explicit theoretical claims or attempting to persuade, with the exception of AI being a sociotechnical system. Then a theoretical and conceptual bridge is crossed, that leads to the Gorica neighborhood, in which the arguments are laid on the existence of a new form of unpaid work and the fabrication of desires in Chapter 5 which leads to a new business power in Chapter 6. This study should be considered exploratory, laying the groundwork for future research with representative sampling.