Algorithmic Sabotage Research Group Asrg !!top!!
More provocatively, the ASRG would argue that inaction is also harm . When a welfare eligibility algorithm wrongly denies benefits to thousands, that is a form of systemic sabotage—but one that flows from the top down. The ASRG’s bottom-up sabotage is merely a mirror: it reveals that “normal operation” already contains violence, just slow and statistical.
The real-world consequences of the ASRG's research are far-reaching. For example:
What such a group typically studies
In the prevailing discourse of Silicon Valley, algorithms are painted as engines of optimization—tools designed to maximize efficiency, profit, and user engagement. To question an algorithm is to debug it; to critique it is to retrain it. But what if the problem is not a bug, but the very architecture of optimization itself? Enter the hypothetical but urgently necessary . Neither a collection of digital vandals nor a Luddite cell, the ASRG would be a transdisciplinary research body dedicated to the systematic study of failure : how to induce it, measure its effects, and weaponize it against systems that exploit rather than serve. algorithmic sabotage research group asrg
Rather than operating merely as a philosophical reading club, the ASRG has attracted significant attention within indie web developer and open-source communities for aggregating a concrete index of defensive-offensive techniques. These strategies are frequently documented across decentralized hubs like Are.na and collaborative repositories. Data Poisoning & Model Corruption
ASRG employs a multifaceted approach to achieve its objectives, including:
Organizing collective direct action that prioritizes human solidarity and egalitarianism over data classification systems. Collective Publishing and Aesthetic Theory More provocatively, the ASRG would argue that inaction
The strategy behind these tools is one of asymmetrical warfare. As one commentator on the well-known blog "jwz" noted: "These tools attempt to poison the data. It's very difficult to know whether that is effective because the only people who can answer that question are The Adversary". The ASRG's approach does not rely on stopping the scrape, but on making the data itself toxic, a move that if scaled, could fundamentally undermine the trustworthiness of AI training pipelines.
The rapid normalization of machine learning, automated surveillance, and generative systems has sparked an equally aggressive counter-movement. Standing at the forefront of this conceptual and active resistance is the . Operating as a decentralized, practice-led, and highly collaborative framework, the group analyzes the systemic harms of commercial artificial intelligence. Crucially, they move beyond traditional tech criticism to advocate for a radical posture of active algorithmic sabotage .
Their work is deeply rooted in radical feminist, anti-fascist, and decolonial perspectives, challenging the reductive "optimizations" that ignore human interdependence. Bridging Theory and Praxis The real-world consequences of the ASRG's research are
Drawing on Achille Mbembe’s concept of necropolitics (who gets to live and who is made to die), ASRG investigates how algorithms manage populations.
The manifesto's ten propositions (numbered 0 to 9) systematically lay out the group's ideology:
ASRG advocates for "wildcat direct action" against hegemonic technology. This involves creative misuse and "insurrectionary desire" to disrupt the automaticity of capitalist systems.
The Algorithmic Sabotage Research Group maintains no official website, no mailing list, and no public membership roster. Their whitepapers appear occasionally on preprint servers, signed only with a PGP key and the phrase: "Sabotage is a signal. Listen."