Nandita Shivakumar is a researcher examining the intersection of labor, technology, and artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on global supply chains.
After content moderators working for a Meta contractor in Kenya organized against labor abuses, the tech giant announced it was discontinuing work with the contractor. The episode illustrates the need for a global response to tech capital’s predation.
Algorithms are not apolitical tools that simply improve efficiency in online transactions or workplace coordination. They are instruments of control and should be regulated like other tools of control.
Training AI often means staring at humanity’s worst atrocities for hours at a time. Workers tasked with this labor endure psychological injury without support — and face legal threats if they speak about it.