Inside AI’s Human Assembly Line

For a combined 16 years, Joan and Ephantus worked as data annotators for major AI companies, recruiting and training thousands of workers who perform the invisible labour that makes AI systems possible. While the AI industry presents itself as a story of seamless technological progress, its systems in fact depend on a vast and largely hidden workforce spread across the globe.

In this talk, they share firsthand experiences from inside the industry: the working conditions behind AI, the fragmented and invisible nature of data work, the psychological toll of content moderation and annotation, and the systems companies use to obscure the human labour behind automation.

Expect rare and deeply personal insights into one of the most overlooked dimensions of artificial intelligence, from the people whose labour trains the machines.

Dieser Programmpunkt wird durch die Stiftung Mercator unterstützt. / This programme session is supported by Stiftung Mercator.