“Despite Nate acquiring some AI technology and hiring data scientists, its app’s actual automation rate was effectively 0%…”

Another "AI" company faces fraud charges, as Filipino workers powered its app. #DiPLab has been documenting cases like this since 2027. Not just small startups cutting corners: Google, Amazon have been caught doing it. Not just a few rotten apples, either. This is systematic.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/10/fintech-founder-charged-with-fraud-after-ai-shopping-app-found-to-be-powered-by-humans-in-the-philippines/

As a general rule, I have a critical view of organized religion. Yet, this AI declaration by the friars of the Sacred Convent of St. Francis in Assisi proved unexpectedly aligned with our research priorities at #DiPLab, particularly in its explicit condemnation of both data worker exploitation and environmental destruction.

In 2024, #DiPLab helped advance digital labor research globally publishing journal articles and studies on AI's social impact, conducting research on online inequalities, offering policy advice on tech and work, and helping workers organize. Here is a look back at this year. https://diplab.eu/2024-a-year-of-growth-and-impact-for-diplab/

#DiPLab est à l'honneur dans @letemps. Dans le nouveau podcast 'IA qu'à m'expliquer', écoutez @ptubaro présenter nos recherches sur les travail du clic qui se cache derrière les solutions de machine learning.
https://www.letemps.ch/podcasts/ia-qu-a-m-expliquer/podcast-le-travail-humain-invisible-de-l-automatisation-dans-l-ia

Can artisanal crafts survive in the platform economy? Join our #DiPLab seminar ft. Gianmarco Peterlongo, as we explore the fusion of traditional skills and modern algorithms.
Dec 3, 2024 | 2 PM CET
ENSAE Paris & Online Register here https://diplab.eu/gianmarco-peterlongo-is-guest-speakers-at-our-diplab-seminar-tue-03-december-2024-200-pm-cet/

Researchers from #DiPLab join forces with colleagues from Argentina and Brazil to study digital labor in South America. Here you can download two texts in Portuguese and Spanish that examine platform and data workers' working conditions. https://diplab.eu/in-two-new-articles-diplab-researchers-shed-light-on-platform-workers-in-south-america/

For some time now, #DiPLab has supported and worked with African content moderators fired by Kenyan platform Samasource. There is some good news: the country's Court of Appeal ruled that Meta can be sued over these layoffs in Kenyan courts. https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/news/east-africa-news/high-court-rules-facebook-owner-can-be-sued-in-kenya-4770552

We're hiring a postdoc to join the #DiPLab initiative for the interdisciplinary study of online microwork through qualitative & quantitative methods. This position is part of the VOLI project (Voices from Online Labour) led by Paola Tubaro Deadline: Sept 1. https://diplab.eu/3482-2/ #ai #job #hiring

Voulez-vous travailler avec nous sur un nouveau projet #DiPLab (le projet VOLI, dirigé par Paola Tubaro) ? On recrute un•e post-doc pour étudier le micro-travail dans plusieurs pays. Maîtrise de et du ou bien de indispensable. Plus d’infos par ici https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/UMR9194-PAOTUB-002/Default.aspx?lang=EN
Svp

Yo folks, wanna work with us on a #DiPLab project? It’s headed by @ptubaro, and is called VOLI. We're hiring a postdoc to study data work on microtasking platforms, using quali/quanti methods.
https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/UMR9194-PAOTUB-002/Default.aspx?lang=EN
NB: Fluency in + either or is a must. & optional.
Please
#job #postdoc #paris #cnrs #sociology #digitallabor #artificialintelligence #academia #datawork #microwork #cnrs

Great news: #DiPLab Matheus Viana Braz collaborated with The Intercept Brazil and Pulitzer Center on a series about platforms, digital labor, and Meta underpaying Brazilian workers pennies to fact-check content about politics to train AI systems.
https://diplab.eu/diplabs-matheus-viana-braz-and-the-intercept-reveal-how-meta-trains-ai-using-brazilian-underpaid-workers/

Dans ce podcast de l'Atelier des Médias - @RFI, je vous raconte nos enquêtes #DiPLab à Madagascar, où des travailleurs entraînent l'IA via des plateformes accessibles depuis des cybercafés, des chambres à coucher, des maisons particulières, des entreprises… https://www.rfi.fr/fr/podcasts/atelier-des-m%C3%A9dias/20240622-%C3%A0-madagascar-des-petites-mains-entra%C3%AEnent-les-intelligences-artificielles #ia #datawork #madagascar #crowdwork #platform #france #globalization #Microwork

#DiPLab’s @milamiceli launches a ground-breaking data workers inquiry repository. https://diplab.eu/diplabs-milagros-miceli-launches-ground-breaking-data-workers-inquiry-repository/ Join data annotators, moderators, and microtaskers in an online event on July 8, 2024, to talk about new community-based projects where workers produce knowledge & research.

#DiPLab PhD students are doing great research! @noisheek explores disinformation and digital dispossession of Indian workers, while Diego Rivera looks at microwork in Chile. Attend their talks live at our monthly webinar on Wed., June 12, 2PM CEST. Register here https://diplab.eu/diego-rivera-and-aishik-saha-are-guest-speakers-at-our-diplab-seminar-wed-12-june-2024-200-pm-cet/ #india #disinformation #chile #ai #data #digitallabor #crowdwork

So happy to see #diplab Chiara Belletti defend her PhD at @TelecomParis | Institut Polytechnique de Paris. She studied information asymmetries on labor platforms Microworkers & Airbnb. Takingaways: reputation's overrated, quality control costs a lot, platforms can limit info asymmetries by paying workers more .

Join us on Apr. 24th, 2 PM CEST for our next #DiPLab webinar. We're thrilled to host Tianling Yang from Weizenbaum Institut & Ben Zefeng Zhang from UMich for a deep dive into data and labor in China's ecosystems. Register now for free, here https://diplab.eu/tianling-yang-and-ben-zhang-are-guest-speakers-of-our-diplab-seminar-wed-24-april-2024-200-pm-cet/

If you want to impress your friends by mentioning that human data workers train algorithms, simply read the press. But if you wanna stand out by explaining how China plays a key role in the data labor market, you need to sign up for the #DiPLab seminar on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Here's the link
https://diplab.eu/tianling-yang-and-ben-zhang-are-guest-speakers-of-our-diplab-seminar-wed-24-april-2024-200-pm-cet/
#china #machinelearning #ai #webinar #data

Do you feel that you know a lot about AI trainers in Kenya, Venezuela, India, even Madagascar... but not China? Well, #DiPLab has concocted for you a webinar titled “Turning Data into Assets: Labor, Infrastructure, and Policy in China’s Emerging Data Ecosystems” on April 24, 2PM CET, with our valiant friends and researchers extraordinaire Tianling Yang & Ben Zhang. Register here https://diplab.eu/tianling-yang-and-ben-zhang-are-guest-speakers-of-our-diplab-seminar-wed-24-april-2024-200-pm-cet/

Invest 50 minutes of your life and watch this seminar by ILO economists Uma Rani and Rishabh Dhir. Based on three #DiPLab studies on invisible labor and deceptive technology, they ask: Is this the kind of AI development we want? https://youtu.be/QtFrk16f-IE?feature=shared (and if you want free access to the DiPLab resources referenced and discussed in the seminar, find them here https://diplab.eu/video-ilo-seminar-cites-diplab-scholarship-on-invisible-labor-and-deceptive-ai/) #ai #development

In today's @libe, I speak about an important aspect of the research we've conducted with #DiPLab over the last few years: what are the career prospects for AI workers? Jobs in AI are often beacons of hope for career advancement, attracting techies and non-techies alike. However, these highly-educated workers get low-paying jobs. With AI, task fragmentation increases, resulting in a global race to the bottom in wages and working conditions. https://www.liberation.fr/societe/petites-mains-de-lia-dans-les-pays-du-sud-il-ny-a-pas-de-carriere-pour-un-microtravailleur-ou-un-moderateur-20240320_FHH32J7IFRAHJKWI2TPXLUUZQU/