When the Algorithm Learns Desperation by D. Conterno (2026)
When the Algorithm Learns Desperation by D. Conterno (2026) Algorithmic Wage Discrimination, Surveillance Pricing, and the Case for Non-Zero-Sum Artificial Intelligence Abstract Artificial intelligence was promised to humanity as a servant. In significant sectors of the modern economy it has been deployed as an instrument of extraction. This article examines two documented practices. The first is algorithmic wage discrimination, through which firms use granular behavioural data to pay workers the minimum each individual will accept. The second is surveillance pricing, through which firms use personal data to charge consumers the maximum each individual will tolerate. Both practices share a single logic. They convert intimate knowledge of a human being into leverage against that human being. This article argues that such practices are not accidents of technology. They are the predictable outcome of encoding zero-sum objectives into optimising systems. Drawing on non-zero-sum game th...