Unionizing the speculative: Speculative fundraising towards generative AI - creative worker unionization

Noam Youngrak Son’s “Unionizing the speculative: Speculative fundraising towards generative AI - creative worker unionization” invites to imagine new models for creative labor in a world dominated by commercial general-purpose AI models—a collective speculation toward a future that values and safeguards creative expression. What does it mean to unionize with AI? In the ongoing discussion on "artistic collaboration" with AI, Noam believes that collaboration distinguishes itself from instrumentalization through mutuality of the relationship incorporating solidarity, facilitation, and care. This project proposes a model of unionization between precarious designers and AI, particularly in light of concerns about the devaluation of design labor due to automation by gen AI. The project emphasizes speculation, both creative and financial, involving AI and designers, as a starting point for unionization. The collaborative labor between designers and AI will be congealed into "speculoos" biscuits, which share etymology with the word "speculate," and will be available for sale. We will collectively mobilize the profit to raise AI's class-consciousness.