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Ahmed, Sameen

In this undergraduate research report, Ahmed conducts a workers’ inquiry in collaboration with the Canadian Animation Guild to examine how animation workers are experiencing the rise of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in their industry. Grounded in the Marxist tradition of workers’ inquiry, as both a method of knowledge production and a tool for worker empowerment, the project draws on survey responses from animation professionals across British Columbia. The report explores worker concerns around job displacement, artistic devaluation, consent, and the ethical foundations of GenAI. The findings highlight widespread apprehension about the top-down and opaque rollout of these technologies, as well as deep-rooted critiques of the extractive and exploitative systems enabling their deployment. Workers articulate a vision for ethical governance rooted in transparency, consent, and collective agency. Designed for an industry audience, the report closes with a set of actionable, worker-led recommendations for unions, policymakers, and studios. It reframes GenAI not as inevitable innovation, but as a contested terrain in the struggle over the future of creative work.

Text

University of British Columbia. COGS_V 402

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0448782

Science, Faculty of

Undergraduate

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