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Katie J. Wells

@katiejwells.bsky.social
3.2K followers 611 following 530 posts

i study how labor platforms shape the way we live in cities. geographer. senior fellow @ainowinstitute.bsky.social. newish book: DISRUPTING D.C. (Princeton Univ Press 2023 and 2025 paperback)

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Katie J. Wells @katiejwells.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
dc, as the waymo debates unfold, take note...
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Ken Schwencke @schwanksta.com · 06/10/2026
A year ago, @propublica.org told you immigration agents had detained more than 170 U.S. citizens. We’ve updated our count, and we’ve got all the receipts. The tally: At least 506 citizens detained. Sometimes held at gunpoint, handcuffed, or even deported. projects.propublica.org/american-cit...
projects.propublica.org
More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica
The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
@katiejwells.bsky.social was saying we should view “self-driving” cars as roving, urban data centers. They sure have the surveillance part down! Is this what we want for our communities?
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DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb @dcattorneygeneral.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
NEW: Amazon will refund thousands of Prime members in Wards 7 and 8 for secretly excluding them from full delivery services. The exclusions have now been lifted, and Amazon will also be required to change its practices. No corporation is too big to be held accountable for deceiving DC residents.
Satellite map of the District of Columbia showing excluded zip codes 20020 and 20019.
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Katie J. Wells @katiejwells.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
want to hear more about doordash's assault on home rule? or on its attempts to derail mamdani? join us tonight. freedcproject.org/event-list/s...
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Katie J. Wells @katiejwells.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Looking forward to this conversation and lucky to be doing it. Silicon Valley vs. Home Rule.
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Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"Algorithmic wages & prices are symptoms of a political economy built on the continuous conversion of movement, delay, fatigue, debt, location, browsing, hunger, punctuality, & desperation into commercial leverage." @veenadubal.bsky.social @katiejwells.bsky.social dissentmagazine.org/article/algo...
dissentmagazine.org
Life Under the Algorithm - Dissent Magazine
Algorithmic wages and prices don’t just squeeze workers in the present. They make them predictably poor into the future.
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Open Markets Institute @openmarkets.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
In a groundbreaking new legal paper, Sandeep Vaheesan argues companies that systematically violate labor, consumer, copyright, environmental, and other laws to undercut rivals are engaging in an unfair method of competition...
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Katie J. Wells @katiejwells.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
not. to. be. missed.
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Amy Maxmen, PhD @amymaxmen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
While the news & white papers breathlessly cover the idea of a threat of a future AI bioweapon, an Ebola outbreak is escalating, having killed nearly 4,000 people so far. The Trump admin has diminished US support to control it w/travel bans, an eroded CDC & a hobbled WHO www.who.int/emergencies/...
who.int
Ebola disease caused by Bundibugyo virus - Democratic Republic of the Congo
Since the last Disease Outbreak News was published on 11 September 2026, the Bundibugyo virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has expanded further, with two additional health zones af...
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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This story brought me back to Kara, one of the mothers in my book, There Is No Place for Us. She was homeless with her four kids while driving for DoorDash. They had to pee in bottles so bathroom stops wouldn't make her late. After gas, she earned $6.50 an hour—75 cents less than the minimum wage.
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Revolving Door Project @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
“Y’all are going to need a bigger hospital.” Already burdened by petrochemical plants, Louisiana is facing a wave of gas-powered AI data centers—and their pollution. Dorothy Slater, an oncology nurse, writes for @dissentmag.bsky.social about nursing her patients at the frontier of AI buildout.
dissentmagazine.org
Death by Data Centers - Dissent Magazine
I’m an oncology nurse in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley. My patients and I breathe the same polluted air, and we can’t afford the toxic exposure from the gas-fired plants set to power the state’s proposed A...
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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 23/09/2026
A 36-year-old Costa Rican man whose family says he complained of not receiving proper care for his diabetes is the third detainee in less than six months to die at a U.S.
bit.ly
Costa Rican man complained of lack of care for diabetes before his death in ICE custody, family says
A 36-year-old Costa Rican man whose family says he complained of not receiving proper care for his diabetes is the third detainee in less than six months to die at a U.S.
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Katie J. Wells @katiejwells.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
📆 see you there.
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Katie J. Wells @katiejwells.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Last night, Seattle became the 1st US city to ban algorithmic pricing for groceries. It's the strongest ban yet & I couldn't be prouder to have helped a wee bit. A year ago, I was putting together PPTs to guide volunteers through a messy experiment. Never did I think we'd have a ban 12 months later.
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The Washington Sun @washingtonsun.com · 21/09/2026
A Venezuelan DoorDash driver shot by an ICE officer in Austin, Texas, said he is now in detention but still has the bullet in his back. www.washingtonsun.com/immigration/i…
washingtonsun.com
Venezuelan DoorDash Driver Recounts Being Shot by an ICE Officer
“I was telling him it hurt a lot, that I couldn't move,” Wilber Rafael Garces Perez said during a press conference from detention.
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 22/09/2026
DoorDash has ripped off more than 260,000 NYC delivery workers. We’re making them pay $131.5 million — the largest worker settlement in City history. This is New York, where hard work pays and greed will cost you.
DoorDash messed up.
They repeatedly left more than 260,000 NYC delivery workers underpaid or paid late, causing them immense stress and financial difficulty.
That's unacceptable.
We've secured a $131.5M settlement from
DoorDash - the largest worker settlement in NYC history and largest delivery worker settlement in
American municipal history.
Every worker will be paid what they are owed, and every company will be forced to abide by the laws of this city.

LOGOS:
The OFFICE of the MAYOR of NYC
NYC Consumer and Worker Protection Mayor Mamdani and Deliveristas representatives stand behind a podium.Mayor Mamdani signs a giant check.Three delivery workers holding a giant fake check for $131.5M.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026
newbedfordlight.org/ice-arrests-...
newbedfordlight.org
ICE arrests surge in New Bedford area; immigrants warned to stay home - The New Bedford Light
Gov. Maura Healey called on ICE to release more information after at least 10 arrests Monday and more Tuesday morning. Mayor Jon Mitchell criticized ICE “overreach.”
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
NEW: @apnews.com confirms that ICE has begun electronically "disappearing" people in the agency's custody who have final orders of removal. As of last week, anyone jailed by ICE with a final order of removal will NOT appear in the ICE Online Detainee Locator System, making them effectively vanish.
apnews.com
AP Exclusive: ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal orders
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding most detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, in a move that has made it harder for lawyers an...
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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Last week, Ohio State students violated the university’s absurd ban on chalking to protest having a weapons manufacturer as the official sponsor of our athletic department. Faculty from @osuaaup.bsky.social were there to support students’ rights to free speech, which is plainly under attack.
thelantern.com
Protestors chalk on campus against Ohio State’s partnership with Anduril and the university chalk ban
Colors covered the Thompson statue and bricks around it after protestors chalked phrases like “Democracy now,” “F*** Anduril” and “Divest now” to protest against the university’s partnership with Andu...
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New York City Policy Forum @nycpolicyforum.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
How can NYC protect New Yorkers as AI reshapes the economy? Reserve your seat for our talk with @hellodcwp.bsky.social, Commissioner @saalevine.bsky.social, and writer @edwardongwesojr.com Sept. 30 3:30–5 PM Co-sponsored by the CUNY Law Burns Program, @cplusc.bsky.social, @rooseveltinstitute.org
governing-ai-for-nyc-workers-and-consumers.eventbrite.com
Governing AI for Workers and Consumers: NYC's Public Approach
Dive into what NYC can do to advance affordability for working families during the rise of AI and corporate consolidation.
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Elisabeth R. Anker @libankerdc.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
AI is the largest theft of labor in history, but the case doesn't go far enough -- AI steals not only from journalists and researchers but from authors throughout history, from policymakers and legal writers, from photographers and artists in every medium.
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Josh Eidelson @josheidelson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
NEW @businessweektr.bsky.social investigation: Crafting America’s Favorite Countertops Is Killing Workers www.bloomberg.com/news/feature... Artificial stone manufacturers want Congress to shut down silicosis lawsuits seeking billions. Confidential company records undermine industry's safety claims
bloomberg.com
‘Death Sentences:’ Crafting America’s Favorite Countertops Is Killing Workers
Hundreds of workers who’ve contracted silicosis are suing the artificial stone industry for billions. While California weighs a ban on fabricating the product, the manufacturers’ defenders in Congress...
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Kiss Kiss Die @stromberg.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
“The system learns from the injuries it helps to create.” You really must read this. It’s disgusting to realise there are people hellbent now on making this the reality for all of us. (Not “all” of us. Just the 99% whose toil is siphoned to the parasitic rich.) dissentmagazine.org/article/algo...
dissentmagazine.org
Life Under the Algorithm - Dissent Magazine
Algorithmic wages and prices don’t just squeeze workers in the present. They make them predictably poor into the future.
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AI Now Institute @ainowinstitute.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
"Her wage has been adjusted toward what she is predicted to accept. The price of necessities has been adjusted toward what she is predicted to tolerate. The result is not simply precarity, but an iterative constraint." @veenadubal.bsky.social & @katiejwells.bsky.social for @dissentmag.bsky.social
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AI Now Institute @ainowinstitute.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Elena, a nurse, signs up for a shift at a base rate of $35/hour. The next day it's $33/hour. There's no explanation, no one to ask why. AI Now's @katiejwells.bsky.social & @veenadubal.bsky.social tell Elena's story, showing how algorithmic wages & prices are reshaping our lives: bit.ly/46Qp4kR
bit.ly
Life Under the Algorithm - Dissent Magazine
Algorithmic wages and prices don’t just squeeze workers in the present. They make them predictably poor into the future.
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Marielza @marielza.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
"...because the systems are personalized, each act of survival can be misread as evidence of preference: she accepted the lower wage, paid the higher price, took the advance, stayed in the apt, kept working through pain. These facts are understood as records of acquiescence, not of coercion." 🔥 🔥
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Katie J. Wells @katiejwells.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
super grateful to have co-written a piece alongside these superstars.
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Katie J. Wells @katiejwells.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Thanks so much, Sonja. This summer I heard nurse after nurse talk about these scores, and so we included it in the story: Elena "tried to scan the code [at the hospital] more than seven minutes before her start time, which dinged her score by half a point." dissentmagazine.org/article/algo...
dissentmagazine.org
Life Under the Algorithm - Dissent Magazine
Algorithmic wages and prices don’t just squeeze workers in the present. They make them predictably poor into the future.
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Molly Crabapple @mollycrabapple.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
ICE got permission to cut open a Cuban hunger striker’s stomach and insert a gastric tube to make him easier to forcefeed Nuremberg trials are too merciful for these monsters www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
ICE given permission to force-feed Cuban hunger striker with gastric tube
Exclusive: court orders seen by Guardian show agency given approval to fit Texas detainee with tube without his consent
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Meredith Broussard, PhD @merbroussard.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
AI cameras on trash trucks in Dallas issue "blight scores" to homeowners. One man is flagged for having soot marks on his chimney. www.nbcdfw.com/investigatio...
nbcdfw.com
Dallas is using AI trash truck cameras to score your home and some homeowners are angry
Records show AI trash truck cameras flagged 21,000 Dallas properties and assigned blight scores. Some homeowners call it a money grab.
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Tom Joscelyn @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
“A Haitian immigrant who had grown increasingly distraught after losing his protection from deportation and being outfitted with an ankle monitor was run over and killed Monday in what his family believes was a suicide.” www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
washingtonpost.com
Haitian immigrant in Ohio takes his own life after losing temporary protected status, family says
Pierre Damas Bel’s family said he felt humiliated by an ankle monitor ICE officers placed on him after the Trump administration canceled protections for thousands of Haitian immigrants.
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DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb @dcattorneygeneral.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
WORKER WIN: Online grocery store Weee! will pay $95,000 for illegally misclassifying its delivery drivers. All Weee! drivers in DC will be reclassified as employees with a right to paid sick leave and other worker protections. DC labor laws apply to all industries. The gig economy is no exception.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 28/08/2026
NEW: We obtained recordings of 160+ emergency calls made from or about an immigration detention center where three people died within six weeks. “They will not give them medical treatment,” one caller said, seeking help for a detainee with kidney stones.
propublica.org
Listen to 911 Calls From Inside an Immigration Detention Center: “We Just Need to Take Him to the Hospital”
Reporters don’t have access to Camp East Montana, one of the largest immigration detention centers in the country. Emergency calls from the Texas facility offer a glimpse of unfolding crises faced by ...
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James Talarico @jamestalarico.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
BREAKING: Liam Tadeo was just deported by ICE.
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Ben Zipperer @benzipperer.org · 22/08/2026
Raleigh, NC taxpayers are spending $3,000 each -- $521 million total -- on Trump's mass deportations. What's your town paying? What could it fund instead? www.epi.org/deportation-...
Instead of spending
$521,361,691
or $3,068 per taxpayer, on mass deportations, Raleigh city taxpayers could fund
2,427
School Teachers
OR
2,998
Firefighters
OR
24,918
People on Medicaid
OR
11,039
Veterans' Medical Care
OR
14,659
Head Start Slots
OR
1,558
Registered Nurses
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public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
i’m dying. i’m dead
zohran holding a the power broker book up in front of his face. caption reads “but robert moses is another video entirely)
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Britt Paris @hellobrittparis.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Higher ed workers: does your union's CBA have language on classroom recording? Or, does your university have a policy on classroom recording? If so, please dm me with a link to the CBA or policy. Would be very much obliged and help lots of ppl 🫡
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I am *extremely insistently* tapping the sign to remind you all to support independent, worker run, billionaire free news how and where you are able to
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maddy varner @regret.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
FTC puts out a proposed policy statement re: personalized pricing (sometimes referred to as "surveillance pricing"). Statement points out several ways personalized pricing is in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act (!) www.regulations.gov/document/FTC...
regulations.gov
Regulations.gov
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AI Now Institute @ainowinstitute.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
You passed a data center moratorium. Now what? Join us tomorrow at 1pm ET for a workshop on the policy tools and organizing strategies so moratoriums build momentum for lasting change, featuring real-life examples from Arizona, New Jersey, Texas, and Tennessee. Register: zoom.us/webinar/regi...
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Alan the Baltimoron @bmorons.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
For all my Baltimore People - We're trying to push back against a Baltimore Gas and Electric’s rate hike. Lend your name? action.consumerreports.org/nb-20260811-...
action.consumerreports.org
Oppose this rate hike, and demand affordable energy
Call on state leaders to reject rate hikes, and lower energy costs
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 17/08/2026
Big news! HYPERSCALE made the longlist for the FT/Standard Chartered Business Book of the Year Award. They call it a “a polemical on-the-ground investigation into the rapid spread of data centres and their impact on the environment and the communities where Big Tech is building them.”
Hyperscale is on the longlist for the Financial Times and Standard Chartered Business Book of the Year Award 2026FT and Standard Chartered Business Book of the Year Award 2026 — the longlist

Hyperscale: Ambition, Power and the Relentless Rise of Data Empires by Paris Marx is a polemical on-the-ground investigation into the rapid spread of data centres and their impact on the environment and the communities where Big Tech is building them. Due to be published in October, the book takes issue with AI developers’ hype and focuses on the people and places affected by their ambitious plans.
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AI Now Institute @ainowinstitute.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
At the Seattle City Council, @katiejwells.bsky.social explained what happens to fair pricing when retailers adopt AI-powered algorithms. She shared why it is so hard to document this practice and highlighted @moreperfectunion.bsky.social’s grocery pricing investigation, which did just that.
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AI Now Institute @ainowinstitute.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Hundreds of communities across the US have passed or are considering data center moratoriums. What happens next? Join us on Aug 19 at 1pm ET for a workshop on the policy tools and organizing strategies that protect against the data center buildout. Register: zoom.us/webinar/regi...
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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
In Arizona alone, a staggering 450,000 people—including more than 100,000 kids—have lost food assistance since Trump's "big beautiful bill" passed. Nationwide, 4.5 million have been pushed off SNAP to fund tax cuts for the rich. That there aren't uprisings in every city, every day, is incredible.
nytimes.com
Arizona’s Food Stamp Crisis Is Coming for the Rest of the U.S.
The number of people who receive nutrition assistance in Arizona has dropped significantly in a matter of months.
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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
This story reflects a larger crisis in the field of Holocaust studies, about why we study the Shoah and what, if any, implications it should hold for the present. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
theguardian.com
An Israeli professor lost a prestigious US job offer after speaking out on Gaza. Now the university is paying him $250,000
The University of Minnesota withdrew an offer for Raz Segal to lead its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies after an organized campaign against his hiring
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AI Now Institute @ainowinstitute.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Gig nursing companies are bringing Uber’s playbook to healthcare by pushing bills across the country that classify nurses as independent contractors and erode worker protections. “This is such a familiar playbook legislatively and politically,” @katiejwells.bsky.social tells Bloomberg Law.
news.bloomberglaw.com
Gig Nursing Companies Advance Worker Status Bills Across States
Healthcare staffing is the latest focus of gig economy regulation as state legislatures weigh industry-backed proposals classifying temporary nurses as independent contractors, an advocacy strategy re...
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AAUP @aaup.org · 30/07/2026
"There's an extreme, radical, right-wing agenda coming out of the federal government targeting higher education. The AAUP won’t exist in an ivory tower and wait for politics to be done to its members. That’s not the AAUP of 2026." – Todd Wolfson, AAUP President
insidehighered.com
AAUP Embraces Political Role With Candidate Endorsements
The group says the move is a first in its over-100-year existence, and part of countering government threats. Critics say AAUP has lost its neutrality.
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AI Now Institute @ainowinstitute.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
There is no shortage of nurses in the US. But there is a shortage of good jobs that nurses are willing to take. AI Now Senior Fellow @katiejwells.bsky.social spoke to @time.com about how gig nursing platforms are a symptom of this mismatch: time.com/article/2026...
time.com
Stop Saying There's a Nursing Shortage
The U.S. may have less of a shortage of licensed nurses than a shortage of nurses who are willing to work in bedside jobs that have become increasingly demanding.
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