The AI Industry Is Traumatizing Desperate Contractors in the Developing World for Pennies
The AI Industry Is Traumatizing Desperate Contractors in the Developing World for Pennies
paying data labelers roughly one US cent for every task they finish, which can take hours. It’s a system Kanyugi compared to “modern slavery.
The article kinda ignores the fact that despite the horrible pay and work, it must be a much better job for these people than anything else they can get in their country because they continue to subject themselves to it. How bad are things when 1 or 2 pennies a day is the best that’s available? I don't understand how you could live on < $1 a month in any country no matter how poor.
Edit: I’m not saying it’s ok, I’m in no way in support of it. You guys are reading me wrong.
I’m saying I genuinely don’t understand the math here.
This is the classic argument used to justify exploiting people in developing nations. In reality the incentive is to keep them living in poverty, so they can keep paying a pittance. Businesses will go to extreme lengths to maintain these conditions.
You know I've put myself through some genuinely awful jobs because I foolishly believed that the job in question had some feature I just couldn't get anywhere else. Either it paid slightly better, my friends worked there, or it was inside at a desk and didn't have weekends.
Every time I'd end up getting fired from one of those jobs, though I think I survived at one or two long enough to quit, I'd end up finding a new awful job that was actually slightly better. And the cycle would begin anew. And I wasn't the only one, most of the people working those jobs could tell you a similar story.
My point is, if you can convince people that it's worse anywhere else, they'll put up with quite a bit. More to that point, my current job has occasional weekends, is not climate controlled, and my desk is really just for taking breaks at, and it's the best job I've ever had. Because the things that make a job good are not the things that most people associate with good jobs. Which makes it easier to manipulate them in to keeping really bad ones.
Yeah you make really good points.
workers in long-exploited countries like Kenya, Colombia, and India are becoming increasingly outraged over the miserable labor of AI training
So...don't do it?
This comment is so insane, especially after reading the conversation that resulted from it.
You acknowledge that the workers work because they need the money, you acknowledge that the alternative is a worse or no job. You call it a societal issue.
And your comment is "so... don't do it?"... yeah, don't do checks notes societal issue, don't complain about being forced into checks notes again societal issue.
I like this content because it easily demonstrates the cognitive dissonance when speaking about how people live in other countries.
Those folks are only a little better off than literal slaves. Many don't have a choice of occupation. They just do whatever they can get paid for.
Are you going to pay them a living wage so they can afford to do that?
Yeah, but think of the shareholders!
They'll be so happy when they see line go up 📈
Someone has to think of the shareholders!
.... It's not me, but someone definitely does think about them.