African Workers' Data Appeal to President Biden: Low-wage workers accuse US tech companies of exploitation and modern slavery.
Labor exploitation
Deplorable working conditions
African workers involved in artificial intelligence training and content moderation work in unbearable conditions conditions, being subjected to psychological trauma for pennies. They are forced to view shocking content for many hours every day, including scenes of violence, child abuse, pornography and bestiality. They are paid less than $2 an hour for this grueling work, which leads many to develop post-traumatic stress disorder.
An open appeal to the authorities
97 African workers interacting with artificial intelligence for companies like Meta and OpenAI published an open letter to US President Biden. In it, they call for an end to “systematic abuse and exploitation” by American tech giants. The signatories, most of whom live in Kenya, demand decent working conditions and fair pay.
Sudden layoffs and debt
In March, Scale AI, a data provider for OpenAI, Meta and the US Army, suddenly banned workers in Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan from using Remotasks platform. Many employees were fired without notice and their wages remained unpaid. The suspended workers lost their livelihoods due to the arbitrariness of a large company based in San Francisco.
Fight for rights
In recent years, tech contractors in Kenya have repeatedly filed lawsuits against outsourcing companies and their US clients, accusing them of mistreating employees. African workers are demanding President Biden make sure tech giants comply with local laws regarding foreign workers and do not block unionization. They call for companies to be held accountable for labor rights violations in American courts.
Glossary
- ChatGPT is a conversational artificial intelligence model created by OpenAI to generate humanoid texts.
- OpenAI is a leading artificial intelligence research company based in San Francisco.
- Meta (Facebook) is a technology giant that owns social networks Facebook, Instagram and other platforms.
- Scale AI is a company that specializes in collecting and labeling data to train artificial intelligence models.
Links
- An Open Letter to President Biden from Tech Workers in Kenya
- Wired article on African work data writing
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Discussion of the topic – African AI Slaves: An Open Letter to Biden on Inhumane Working Conditions
Prominent tech companies such as OpenAI and Meta have been accused of exploiting low-wage workers from poor countries to prepare data and moderate content for their artificial intelligence models.
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Nikolaus
This is a truly alarming situation. Labor exploitation in developing countries is a serious ethical issue that companies like OpenAI and Meta must combat 🤔
Raquel
I agree, this practice is terrible. Big tech corporations should not be allowed to exploit cheap labor in poor countries and subject these people to psychological trauma 😡 There must be strict rules and fines for companies that violate workers' rights!
Ivan
Hmm, but many people don’t even think about the cost of creating modern AI technologies. Low-wage workers in Africa and Asia are forced to watch terrible content to train these models. Is this fair? 🤨
Günther
Bah, all this fancy AI stuff and chatbots is complete nonsense! 😠 What next, will we pay people to teach machines to swear and troll on the Internet? Bring back the good old days when everything was humane!
Sofia
But AI technologies have enormous potential in various fields - medicine, education, science. The problem is that some companies exploit workers for the sake of profit 🥺 We need to force them to comply with ethical standards and pay them decently for their work!
Pierre
It seems to me that an integrated approach is needed here. On the one hand, it is necessary to tighten regulation and introduce harsh fines for companies that violate workers' rights. 💰 On the other hand, developing countries should improve living standards and create decent jobs so that people are not forced to take on such traumatic work.
Ania
I completely agree! It is also important to raise public awareness about this issue. Many simply do not know the cost of creating modern AI technologies 😔 We need to talk about this in order to put pressure on companies to change their practices.
Luca
Indeed, the situation with the exploitation of workers in the AI sector is very alarming. But I believe that with due attention and effort we can change it for the better. By uniting, we can achieve justice and respect for human rights in this industry! 💪🏻