Technology

Unfortunately, the technology of the future demands a high price. On top of the exorbitant energy cost fueling a return to industrial-era levels of pollution, AI is also propped up by a massive global sweatshop operation, where low-wage workers in underdeveloped countries are tasked with doing the hidden intellectual labor that makes the tech useful.

As reported by Agence France-Presse, workers in long-exploited countries like Kenya, Colombia, and India are becoming increasingly outraged over the miserable labor of AI training. For example, as the wire service notes, for an AI chatbot to generate an autopsy report, contract workers have to sift through thousands of gruesome crime scene images, a gig known as “data labeling.”

Though the work is often done remotely — thus saving on the overhead costs of leasing an office — data labeling isn’t exactly a cushy laptop job. Workers involved in this industrial operation describe grueling hours, few if any workplace protections, and frequent tasks involving violent or grisly content. In theory, it’s not unlike social media content moderation, another digital practice built on exploitative labor in the developing world.

“You have to spend your whole day looking at dead bodies and crime scenes,” Ephantus Kanyugi, a Kenyan data label, told AFP. “Mental health support was not provided.”

I could swear I've seen this movie before.