AI language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT are partially powered by low-wage workers. Contractors in poor countries pay small amounts of money to correct chatbot data, label images, etc. On May 22, 97 African workers who train artificial intelligence or moderate content for companies such as Meta and OpenAI published an open letter to President Biden demanding an end to the «systematic abuse and exploitation of African workers» by American tech companies.
- Most of the letter’s signatories live in Kenya, a center of technology outsourcing whose president, William Ruto, is visiting the United States this week. The workers argue that the practices of companies like Meta, OpenAI, and data provider Scale AI are «tantamount to modern-day slavery».
- The letter states that a typical workday for African workers involves «watching murder and beheadings, child abuse and rape, pornography and bestiality, often for more than 8 hours a day». Paid less than $2 per hour, workers often suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder — a well-documented problem among content moderators around the world.
The work includes reviewing content on platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, as well as labeling images and training chatbot responses for companies such as OpenAI. The workers are affiliated with the African Content Moderators Union, the first content moderators’ union on the continent, and a group founded by laid-off workers who previously trained artificial intelligence models for companies such as Scale AI, which sells data packages and data labeling services to clients including OpenAI, Meta, and the US Army. The letter was published on the website of the British activist group Foxglove, which promotes the activities of technical workers’ unions and fair technologies.
The letter states that in March, Scale AI suddenly banned people from Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan from working on Remotasks, Scale AI’s contract work platform. The letter states that these workers were fired without warning and are owed significant amounts of unpaid wages.
«When Remotasks was shut down, it took our livelihoods out of our hands, food out of our kitchens. But Scale AI, the big company that ran the platform, is still getting away with it because it’s based in San Francisco,» says Joan Kinyua, a former Remotasks employee.
While the Biden administration has often described its approach to labor policy as worker-centered, the African workers’ letter argues that this does not apply to them: «we are treated as disposable».
«You have the power to stop our exploitation by American companies, clean up this work, and ensure that we have dignity and fair working conditions. You can make sure that there are good jobs for Kenyans too, not just Americans», — the letter reads.
In recent years, tech contractors in Kenya have filed many lawsuits claiming that tech outsourcing companies and their U.S. clients, such as Meta, have treated workers illegally. The letter to Biden asks him to make sure that U.S. tech companies work with overseas tech workers in compliance with local laws and do not engage in union-busting practices. It also suggests that tech companies should be held accountable in U.S. courts for their illegal operations, including human and labor rights violations.
The letter comes just over a year after 150 workers formed the African Content Moderators Union. According to the workers, Meta immediately afterwards fired almost all of its 300 moderators in Kenya and effectively destroyed the newly formed union. The company has now received three lawsuits from more than 180 Kenyan workers demanding more humane working conditions, freedom to form organizations, and payment of outstanding wages.
Source: Wired
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