TechEquity Wrapped: A year of advocacy
You may or may not have enjoyed Spotify Wrapped’s AI-generated podcast recapping your year in music. You definitely didn’t receive a Sound City this year. But never fear: TechEquity is here to recount what’s being done around the labor, housing, and AI, including issues tied to these Spotify Wrapped… evolutions.
The past year has been rough for many of us with mass layoffs and fears of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. Yet, we remained persistent in championing public policy and research that brings us closer to our vision for change and ensures that tech’s evolution benefits everyone. Before we sign off for the holiday season, we’re excited to share a year filled with research, legislation, and other efforts to address inequities within the tech industry and those resulting from tech products.
Let us continue building community with one another and revisit some of TechEquity’s greatest hits in 2024!
2024: Our Cali Neo-Hyperpop AI era
Artificial intelligence is not new, but the hype of the AI industry was renewed this year with new matching AI California legislation.
That’s why we decided to define the Cali Neo-Hyperpop AI sound on our terms with our AI Policy Principles. For us, policies within this subgenre should:
- Include the people impacted by AI, giving them agency to shape the technology that dictates their access to critical needs like employment, housing, and healthcare.
- Shift the burden of proof to developers, vendors, and deployers to demonstrate that their tools do not create harm—and regulators, as well as private individuals, should be empowered to hold them accountable.
- Address concentrated power and information asymmetries to effectively regulate the technology.
We premiered these parameters at an evening reception in Sacramento—our 2023 Sound City. We followed that up with a legendary tour, showcasing key intersecting topics like economic competition and elections, and featuring incredible advocates trying to influence the subgenre. And we have more shows coming in 2025. It’s a circuit to rival the Eras tour, which is no surprise considering that Swift and TechEquity Founder and CEO Catherine Bracy both made the Forbes Future of Work 50 list last year.
We also teamed up with producers in the California Legislature to give you “Support AI Procurement Standards (SB 892)” and “Address Algorithmic Bias (AB2930).” While the governor ultimately vetoed these, he did sign 24 other AI-related bills into law—some of which were TechEquity-certified bangers.
Check out “AI bills by the numbers” for straight-up stats on the Cali Neo-Hyperpop AI subgenre—after all, Wrapped is supposed to be all about the details.
Top artist: The Researchers
So how do we even know what issues in labor, housing, and AI we want to address and how we want to address them?
Meet the Researchers. They’re leading the way with powerful, public projects that influence legislation and change across the country—even the world.
The Researchers started the year expanding on their previous work, the Contract Worker Disparity Project, with Inside Tech’s Shadow’s Workforce. In this, they highlight how AI is changing the tech labor force, highlighting some key dynamics in that shift and hearing from contract workers affected by it.
You may also be familiar with their 2024 hit album Screened Out of Housing. It’s sort of like Charlie XCX’s brat mixed with Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter: a detail-oriented, people-first exploration of the impact of automated tenant screening tech. To develop it, the Researchers surveyed renters and landlords to understand how landlords use this technology to screen renters in California—and how opaque tenant screening algorithms leave both renters and landlords in the dark. Check out our breakdown to learn more.
Less cryptic than Kendrick Lamar and his music videos, the Researchers also gave us insights into a future album on the global AI supply chain.
Top songs: Community stories
Nothing is wrong with our algorithm—we simply just can’t pick one community story over another. While data and research sketch the outline of an issue, stories fill in the color, demonstrating what’s at stake and helping push legislation and enforcement forward.
“Corporate Auntie” by Yolanda Renee Collins tells the story of Yolanda, who has over 20 years of corporate experience. Reflecting on her time, she says:
“I’ve seen firsthand that contract work is worse than ever… Now, I find that the positions are put in place as a substitute for hiring full-time workers. The terms are very obscure, and I feel that companies are taking advantage.”
In her piece, she also highlights how this shift is disproportionately impacting Black and brown workers. To quote Gracie Abrams, “that’s so true”—as we know from our own research.
“What contract work is really like” by Dani Bicknell got our hearts pumping and our tears flowing, like “Saturn” by SZA. Born and raised in the Bay Area, Dani has witnessed a huge transformation in work due to the tech industry—the good, the bad, and the ugly.
“During mass layoffs, company culture pushed the line that if you didn’t agree to whatever they offered or refused to be a contract worker under their terms, you didn’t care about the company’s mission.”
She has been able to sing her song, so to speak, for legislative offices, informing policy and advocacy work.
That’s a Wrapped!
Thank you for jamming with TechEquity this year. We know that it hasn’t been an easy one and it’s difficult not to lose hope, even on Spotify Wrapped Day. Perhaps especially on Wrapped Day.
TechEquity is articulating an alternative vision for the future of tech, a future where people impacted by technology have the agency to shape it. You, our community, are pivotal as we move forward.
Do you have a song to write, a story to tell as a worker or tenant? We want to hear it. Sharing your story can be a lever for change and have a ripple effect of impact; your story can inspire others to step forward and share theirs.