Michael Brier is a researcher at the University of Michigan, where he is completing a Ph.D. (ABD) in the Department of American Culture. His research examines the history and political economy of information technologies, with a particular interest in AI-infused smart systems and big data infrastructures. Situated at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS), geography, infrastructure studies, and sociology, his dissertation traces the history of cloud-based smart home devices and tracks how the vast network of these data-collecting systems has reconfigured space, recoded social dynamics, and rewired networks of surveillance and control.