To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High Technology Capitalism by Nick Dyer-Witheford, CLCF co-lead Rafael Grohmann and Greig de Peuter organized Cyber-Marx @25. The all-day brought together over 20 researchers to reflect on the book’s legacy, the evolution of cyber-Marxist thought, and the urgent struggles of our present digital landscape, especially in today’s AI context. Throughout the day, speakers tackled various dimensions of contemporary cyber-Marxism. Short provocations and updates on cyber-Marxist concepts were structured thematically and followed by periods of collective reflection sparking lively discussions.

Dyer-Witheford opened the proceedings with reflections on the historical context of his work—written during the first dot-com boom and influenced by the school of autonomous Marxism—before introducing his newest book co-authored with Alessandra Mularoni, Cybernetic Circulation Complex: Big Tech and Planetary Crisis. He characterized big tech’s current AI trajectory as a “massive dodgy bet” that intensifies existing tensions in capitalism while creating new sites of struggle, particularly as generative AI moves from circulation to production.  

Alessandro Delfanti examined capital’s persistent fantasy of fully automating labor and historical ways in which tech has been weaponized against labour. Yet, he warned against overestimating generative AI, emphasizing that “workers remain the generative force” behind these technologies. Valentina Castellini revisited the Marxist conceptualization of labor as “form-giving fire” and its applicability to today’s world that is literally and figuratively burning.  Siobhan Stevenson posed a challenge: Cyber-Marx began as a PhD dissertation—so what will be the “Cyber-Marx” for today’s doctoral students? Alessandra Mularoni further extended this reflection, discussing pedagogy as a battleground within and against the university. This sparked collective reflections around teaching with and about AI.

This session examined technological cycles through multiple lenses. Vera Khovanskaya explored how technology changes tech workers’ self-perception. Yuxing Zhang and Marcelo Vieta interrogated crisis and class struggle in contemporary tech contexts. The collective reflections that followed raised questions about counter social-reproduction.

Dorothy Kidd urged researchers to “follow the struggle” rather than the technology, grounding digital critique in the material realities of extraction, exploitation, and collective resistance. Asmita Bhutani highlighted the invisibilized human labor behind AI systems, while Enda Brophy revisited worker inquiry. Sarah Sharma proposed a “techno-feminist refusal” that rejects compulsory acceptance of technological systems that perpetuate patriarchal and white supremacist logics, characterizing ChatGPT as “the mediocre man we need to accommodate.”

The planetary scale of tech capitalism was addressed by Tanner Mirrlees, who contrasted 1990s globalization with today’s US-China tech rivalries and global platform surveillance. Tero Karppi speculated on the implications of a “solar system internet” and delayed communication in space, while Santiago Valles addressed the “permanent war regime” we live under, challenging participants to consider effective means of opposing capitalist empire.

This session explored emerging resistance. Nicole Cohen highlighted the new media union movement and worker-owned outlets like Defector. Isabella Consolati addressed living labor’s role in war scenarios, while Atle Mikkola Kjosen asked “What if capital could become autonomous from us?” Rafael Grohmann shared alternative digital futures from Latin America while questioning why progressive movements are “failing in so many dimensions” despite these promising initiatives. Alison Hearn suggested universities’ “porosity” creates opportunities for new forms of social organizing using an eerily prescient reading of HEXEN 2.0 TAROT cards to structure her talk. In the collective reflections, this raised a playful (though earnest) discussion around the need for tarot and divination in revolutionary endeavours.

HEXEN 2.0 TAROT by Suzanne Treister, reading by Alison Hearn.

The event concluded with a forward-looking discussion on alternatives to extractive tech capitalism. Upasana Bhattacharjee introduced “glitch” as a mode of queer and trans critique, revealing the hidden mechanisms of technological exclusion. Fabiana Benedito explored feminist economic strategies, particularly in the Brazilian context.  Finally, Ashique Ali detailed Kerala’s state-supported worker cooperatives as alternatives to Uber, noting they often don’t fail for technological reasons but because “they’re being made to fail by forces of capitalism.”

Ashique Ali, Fabiana Benedito, Upasana Bhattacharjee, Asmita Bhutani, Enda Brophy, Valentina Castellini, Nicole Cohen, Isabella Consolati, Alessandro Delfanti, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Rafael Grohmann, Alison Hearn, Tero Karppi, Vera Khovanskaya, Dorothy Kidd, Atle Mikkola Kjosen, Tanner Mirrlees, Alessandra Mularoni, Greig de Peuter, Sarah Sharma, James Steinhoff, Siobhan Stevenson, Santiago Valles, Marcelo Vieta, and Yuxing (Yolanda) Zhang