James Steinhoff
Biographic Data
| ID | 2744205 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James Steinhoff |
| GIVEN NAMES | James |
| FAMILY NAME | Steinhoff |
| SIGNATURE | STEINHOFF J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College Dublin |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5145-4932 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Remote robotics, or the digital re-embodiment of labour
The remote operation of robots in logistics is becoming increasingly prevalent, with robots being deployed across a variety of sectors and operated by workers from a distance. This allows manual labour to be conducted remotely. Despite eliminating the need for physical proximity between the robot and the operator, remote robotics still necessitates human interaction to control the machinery, a process we call re-embodiment. This working arrangeme…
Green simulation, infrastructure, and the planned energy futures of big tech
A speculative political economy of virtual/augmented reality: Synchronization and immanentization
Virtual and augmented reality are, alongside AI, some of the most feted technologies of the 2020s. However, unlike AI it remains unclear whether there is a distinct political economy of VR/AR. This article argues—in a speculative mode—that there is by drawing together political economy and medium theory. I contend that the economic significance of VR/AR is an operation of real-time synchronization , in which the body, the real world, and virtual …
Simulation and the reality gap: Moments in a prehistory of synthetic data
This paper sketches a prehistory of synthetic data in the development of simulation technologies. Synthetic data is connected to simulation by the technical problem of the reality gap: the gap between the synthetic data a model is trained on and the real-world data it is deployed on. The reality gap is presented as a novelty both generated and solved by synthetic data. We demonstrate that the reality gap has plagued simulation technologies since …
The universality of the machine: Labour process theory and the absorption of the skills and knowledge of labour into capital
This article contends that deskilling is best understood not as a distinct phenomenon, but as a component of a process Marx (1993: 694) called ‘absorption’. Absorption involves not only the extraction of capacities from labour but also their implementation in machines. The article reads Braverman’s (1998) analysis of Taylorism as a demonstration of how absorption entails a specific labour process of its own, which I call the absorption process. T…
Introduction: Special Issue Artificial intelligence through the lenses of Marxism and critical thinking
This special issue of Eptic is focused specifically on the technology of artificial intelligence (AI). For all his technological acuity, Marx could not have foreseen the rise of the contemporary approach to AI called machine learning (ML). And while there is a long tradition of Marxist research on technology, there is, of yet, relatively little on AI specifically. We hope the inspiring and thought provoking articles published in this special issu…
Artificial intelligence and the contradictions of digital capitalism: Interview with Sabine Pfeiffe
Sabine Pfeiffer is a sociologist interested in the interaction between people, technology, and organization. She has worked at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich, Ruhr University Bochum, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen Nuremberg, University of Hohenheim, and the University of Düsseldorf. She recently published the book Digital Capitalism and Distributive Forces. She points out two recurring blind spots. The first one is the lack…
On the Political Economy of Link-based Web Search
Web search engines arguably form the most popular data-driven systems in contemporary society. They wield a considerable power by functioning as gatekeepers of the Web. Since the late 1990s, search engines have been dominated by the paradigm of link-based web search. In this paper, we critically analyse the Political Economy of the paradigm of link-based web search, drawing upon insights and methodologies from Critical Political Economy. We illus…
AI ethics as subordinated innovation network
AI ethics is proposed, by the Big Tech companies which lead AI research and development, as the cure for diverse social problems posed by the commercialization of data-intensive technologies. It aims to reconcile capitalist AI production with ethics. However, AI ethics is itself now the subject of wide criticism; most notably, it is accused of being no more than “ethics washing” a cynical means of dissimulation for Big Tech, while it continues it…
Academic data science: Transdisciplinary and extradisciplinary visions
As a nascent field within the academy, the contours, attributes, and bounties of data science are still indeterminate and contested. We studied how participants in an initiative to establish data science at a large American research university defined data science and articulated their relationships to the field. We discuss two contrasting visions for data science among our research participants. One vision is a transdisciplinary view portraying …
Toward a political economy of synthetic data: A data-intensive capitalism that is not a surveillance capitalism
Surveillance of human subjects is how data-intensive companies obtain much of their data, yet surveillance increasingly meets with social and regulatory resistance. Data-intensive companies are thus seeking other ways to meet their data needs. This article explores one of these: the creation of synthetic data, or data produced artificially as an alternative to real-world data. I show that capital is already heavily invested in synthetic data. I a…
Automation and Autonomy: Labour, Capital and Machines in the Artificial Intelligence Industry
1. Introduction: Automation, Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence -- 2. Labour, Capital, Machine: Marxist Theory and Technology -- 3. Post-Operaismo and the New Autonomy of Immaterial Labour -- 4. Industrializing Intelligence: A Political Economic History of the AI Industry -- 5. Machine Learning and Fixed Capital: The Contemporary AI Industry -- 6. A Dark Art: The Machine Learning Labour Process -- 7. New Autonomy and Work in the AI Industry -- …
Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism
Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism
Mindless: Why Smarter Machines are Making Dumber Humans
Exits to the Posthuman Future
Toward a political economy of synthetic data: A data-intensive capitalism that is not a surveillance capitalism
Surveillance of human subjects is how data-intensive companies obtain much of their data, yet surveillance increasingly meets with social and regulatory resistance. Data-intensive companies are thus seeking other ways to meet their data needs. This article explores one of these: the creation of synthetic data, or data produced artificially as an alternative to real-world data. I show that capital is already heavily invested in synthetic data. I a…
Simulation and the reality gap: Moments in a prehistory of synthetic data
This paper sketches a prehistory of synthetic data in the development of simulation technologies. Synthetic data is connected to simulation by the technical problem of the reality gap: the gap between the synthetic data a model is trained on and the real-world data it is deployed on. The reality gap is presented as a novelty both generated and solved by synthetic data. We demonstrate that the reality gap has plagued simulation technologies since …
Academic data science: Transdisciplinary and extradisciplinary visions
As a nascent field within the academy, the contours, attributes, and bounties of data science are still indeterminate and contested. We studied how participants in an initiative to establish data science at a large American research university defined data science and articulated their relationships to the field. We discuss two contrasting visions for data science among our research participants. One vision is a transdisciplinary view portraying …
Exits to the Posthuman Future
Mindless: Why Smarter Machines are Making Dumber Humans
Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism
Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism
Automation and Autonomy: Labour, Capital and Machines in the Artificial Intelligence Industry
1. Introduction: Automation, Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence -- 2. Labour, Capital, Machine: Marxist Theory and Technology -- 3. Post-Operaismo and the New Autonomy of Immaterial Labour -- 4. Industrializing Intelligence: A Political Economic History of the AI Industry -- 5. Machine Learning and Fixed Capital: The Contemporary AI Industry -- 6. A Dark Art: The Machine Learning Labour Process -- 7. New Autonomy and Work in the AI Industry -- …
Toward a political economy of synthetic data: A data-intensive capitalism that is not a surveillance capitalism
Surveillance of human subjects is how data-intensive companies obtain much of their data, yet surveillance increasingly meets with social and regulatory resistance. Data-intensive companies are thus seeking other ways to meet their data needs. This article explores one of these: the creation of synthetic data, or data produced artificially as an alternative to real-world data. I show that capital is already heavily invested in synthetic data. I a…
Academic data science: Transdisciplinary and extradisciplinary visions
As a nascent field within the academy, the contours, attributes, and bounties of data science are still indeterminate and contested. We studied how participants in an initiative to establish data science at a large American research university defined data science and articulated their relationships to the field. We discuss two contrasting visions for data science among our research participants. One vision is a transdisciplinary view portraying …
The universality of the machine: Labour process theory and the absorption of the skills and knowledge of labour into capital
This article contends that deskilling is best understood not as a distinct phenomenon, but as a component of a process Marx (1993: 694) called ‘absorption’. Absorption involves not only the extraction of capacities from labour but also their implementation in machines. The article reads Braverman’s (1998) analysis of Taylorism as a demonstration of how absorption entails a specific labour process of its own, which I call the absorption process. T…
Introduction: Special Issue Artificial intelligence through the lenses of Marxism and critical thinking
This special issue of Eptic is focused specifically on the technology of artificial intelligence (AI). For all his technological acuity, Marx could not have foreseen the rise of the contemporary approach to AI called machine learning (ML). And while there is a long tradition of Marxist research on technology, there is, of yet, relatively little on AI specifically. We hope the inspiring and thought provoking articles published in this special issu…
Artificial intelligence and the contradictions of digital capitalism: Interview with Sabine Pfeiffe
Sabine Pfeiffer is a sociologist interested in the interaction between people, technology, and organization. She has worked at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich, Ruhr University Bochum, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen Nuremberg, University of Hohenheim, and the University of Düsseldorf. She recently published the book Digital Capitalism and Distributive Forces. She points out two recurring blind spots. The first one is the lack…
On the Political Economy of Link-based Web Search
Web search engines arguably form the most popular data-driven systems in contemporary society. They wield a considerable power by functioning as gatekeepers of the Web. Since the late 1990s, search engines have been dominated by the paradigm of link-based web search. In this paper, we critically analyse the Political Economy of the paradigm of link-based web search, drawing upon insights and methodologies from Critical Political Economy. We illus…
AI ethics as subordinated innovation network
AI ethics is proposed, by the Big Tech companies which lead AI research and development, as the cure for diverse social problems posed by the commercialization of data-intensive technologies. It aims to reconcile capitalist AI production with ethics. However, AI ethics is itself now the subject of wide criticism; most notably, it is accused of being no more than “ethics washing” a cynical means of dissimulation for Big Tech, while it continues it…
Remote robotics, or the digital re-embodiment of labour
The remote operation of robots in logistics is becoming increasingly prevalent, with robots being deployed across a variety of sectors and operated by workers from a distance. This allows manual labour to be conducted remotely. Despite eliminating the need for physical proximity between the robot and the operator, remote robotics still necessitates human interaction to control the machinery, a process we call re-embodiment. This working arrangeme…
Green simulation, infrastructure, and the planned energy futures of big tech
A speculative political economy of virtual/augmented reality: Synchronization and immanentization
Virtual and augmented reality are, alongside AI, some of the most feted technologies of the 2020s. However, unlike AI it remains unclear whether there is a distinct political economy of VR/AR. This article argues—in a speculative mode—that there is by drawing together political economy and medium theory. I contend that the economic significance of VR/AR is an operation of real-time synchronization , in which the body, the real world, and virtual …
Simulation and the reality gap: Moments in a prehistory of synthetic data
This paper sketches a prehistory of synthetic data in the development of simulation technologies. Synthetic data is connected to simulation by the technical problem of the reality gap: the gap between the synthetic data a model is trained on and the real-world data it is deployed on. The reality gap is presented as a novelty both generated and solved by synthetic data. We demonstrate that the reality gap has plagued simulation technologies since …
Computer Science (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Law (6 works) · Artificial Intelligence (5 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI (5 works) · Digital Economy and Work Transformation (4 works) · Economics (4 works) · Politics (4 works)