The Guardian announced last week a year-long editorial series examining how artificial intelligence is reshaping work across the United States and globally. The project, called Reworked, will place workers at the center of AI coverage rather than tech executives or abstract forecasts.
Key Takeaways
- The Guardian launched “Reworked,” a year-long series on AI reshaping work.
- Led by Samantha Oltman, it centers workers rather than tech executives.
- Signals a shift in big-newsroom AI coverage from tools to labor and power.
Led by Samantha Oltman, former editor-in-chief of Recode and editorial director at Vox, the series will document how millions of Americans are already working with or being managed by AI-driven systems. Coverage will span Amazon warehouses, hospitals, Hollywood writers’ rooms, offices and docks.
“Artificial intelligence is often discussed as if it were an unstoppable force moving through society on its own terms,” Oltman said. “In reality, it is being implemented through specific workplace decisions made by employers, executives and lawmakers.”
The series will interrogate the binary narrative that AI will either cause mass joblessness or pose little threat. Instead, reporting will examine how AI influences scheduling, HR disciplinary procedures, pay, promotion and creative output in real time.
Michele L Jawando, president of Omidyar Network, framed the project as fundamentally about power. “Independent journalism that centers the voices of working people is essential to ensuring our digital future is steered by our shared humanity,” she said.
The Guardian joins other major newsrooms treating AI as a sustained beat rather than sporadic coverage. The commitment signals that AI’s workplace impact has moved from speculation to daily reality requiring systematic documentation, a shift that is beginning to create a need for new governance even as the AI shift to agents is beginning.
