Increasingly, automated processes—under the catch-all term “artificial intelligence” (AI)—serve as “mechanical managers” in the workplace. They may manifest as productivity applications to spur workers to work faster or as deputized surveillants who monitor workers’ every move. Moving beyond surveillance capitalism, this Essay argues that, absent legal intervention, we are on a path toward a scientific approach to management that prioritizes efficiency and deploys AI technologies to maximize output through the collection and exploitation of worker’s captured capital. That is, the more benevolent tenets of scientific management, such as encouraging productivity or achieving mutual prosperity for employers and workers , no longer represent paramount goals for firms. Rather, emboldened by new AI capabilities, firms have set out to quantify or reduce all elements of workers’ experience to data. This data is valuable capital that (1) holds exchange value and (2) drives the automation of workplaces and the displacement of workers.
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