Low-paid AI workers in Africa, who perform AI and social media content moderation work for major Silicon Valley companies like Meta and OpenAI, have published an open letter imploring US President Joe Biden to help ensure fair working conditions. The letter’s 97 signees claim that the system amounts to modern-day slavery.
These workers are tasked with cleaning AI training datasets, removing bad or unsafe content, and providing labels for text, images, and other inputs. This job takes a toll as these workers are exposed to the worst aspects of humanity to ensure the safety of AI tools. The work is done at incredibly low wages, often less than two dollars an hour. The workers also claim that their work has left them with life-altering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The letter, published ahead of Kenyan President William Ruto’s visit to the US, states that US Big Tech companies are systemically abusing and exploiting African workers. The signees demand that any trade-related discussions between the US and Kenya must take into account these abuses and ensure that the rights of all workers are protected.
The job comes at great cost to the workers’ health, lives, and families. The workers say that US tech giants export their toughest and most dangerous jobs overseas. Their work involves watching murder and beheadings, child abuse and rape, pornography, and bestiality, often for more than 8 hours a day.
Read more: futurism.com