Anatomy of an AI System

Research on AI’s material, labour and political conditions. Trace a system beyond its interface to extraction, human work and data infrastructures.

How to study this source

• Which costs disappear when AI is described only as software?

  coreOpening overview and the first section that addresses the pathway question. Stop after 30–45 minutes; this is selected reading.

  Research on AI’s material, labour and political conditions. Trace a system beyond its interface to extraction, human work and data infrastructures.

• What lies outside an AI model’s code?

  coreAnatomy of an AI System: diagram overview and the first explanatory sections

  An AI service also depends on labour, materials, infrastructure and institutions.

Ideas and questions

Read background definitions when a term blocks the argument. Then return to the source and reconstruct its claim in your own words.

Read alongside, read against