Beyond the Amazon Echo assistant in your kitchen or the disembodied apps that glow on your iPhone screen are a hidden army of “ghost workers” who intervene when algorithms trip up. This invisible labour force administers complicated takeaway orders, moderates explicit Facebook content and verifies your Uber driver’s picture when an algorithm fails to recognise their new haircut.
Who does this kind of work? People in the US, India and elsewhere, working from their bedroom or kitchen counter, connected to the internet and often earning less than the minimum wage. Ghost workers are pivotal to digital capitalism: the Pew Research Center estimates they number 20 million people.
the ‘automated’ future of capitalism is one of half alive computers and half dead people
I’m glad this article exists because so many people assume technology today is way more advanced than it actually is, which leads to this whole idea of an easy transition from work to automation.
Reminder: the average business claiming something is being done by “ai” is just having someone use an excel sheet or a trivial utility you’ve been able to get online for 15 years.
Ghosts in the machines: the invisible human labour behind AI