WAITING FOR ROBOTS

A disturbing look at AI and exploitative labor.

Artificial intelligence, according to its advocates, holds out the promise of an end to mind-numbing, exploitative work. Casilli, a professor of sociology at the Institut Polytechnique de Paris and the author of numerous books on the social impact of technology, vehemently disagrees. He argues that it has merely changed the type of labor and the structure of the exploitation, and he has a mountain of research to support his case. AI systems are far from autonomous, he says. To get them to work at all requires the input of huge amounts of data, and there is a constant need for additions, checks, and revisions. The work is usually done not by employees but by contractors. The pay is poor and the benefits are nonexistent. Casilli provides several case studies to illustrate his points, with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk being the most illustrative. The service uses an army of freelance “clickworkers” around the globe for various types of data input, with the unifying factor being the poor rates of remuneration. Casilli acknowledges that AI is evolving at a startling rate but that probably means that it will require more human input at the lower end of the value scale, not less. He proposes a “universal digital income,” a basic level for digital workers that could be partly financed by a tax on platforms. It is a compelling idea, but implementation would be difficult. In any case, Casilli has identified a host of problems in the brave new world of AI, and perhaps this book can be a good place to start thinking about solutions.

Revealing the dirty secrets of the AI revolution—and offering ideas for a path forward.