Making Data: The Work Behind Artificial Intelligence

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Braz, Matheus Viana, Tubaro, Paola, Casilli, Antonio A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912061872668672
author Braz, Matheus Viana
Tubaro, Paola
Casilli, Antonio A.
author_facet Braz, Matheus Viana
Tubaro, Paola
Casilli, Antonio A.
contents AI generates both enthusiasm and disillusionment, with promises that often go unfulfilled. It is therefore not surprising that human labor, which is its fundamental component, is also subject to these same deceptions. The development of "smart technologies" depends, at different stages, on a multitude of precarious, underpaid and invisible workers, who, dispersed globally, carry out repetitive, fragmented activities, paid per task and completed in a few seconds. These are workers who label data to train algorithms, through tasks that require the intuitive, creative and cognitive abilities of human beings, such as categorizing images, classifying advertisements, transcribing audio and video, evaluating advertisements, moderating content on social media, labeling human anatomical points of interest, digitizing documents, etc. This form of work is often referred to as "microwork". Our contribution, which documents the conditions of microwork in Brazil and offers portraits of the workers, is a step in the wider effort to overcome the current state of invisibilization. It opens up avenues for future research, with the aim of better characterizing this new form of work, tracing its changes over time in relation to the dynamics of globalization and, ideally, identifying levers for action and transitions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_03694
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Making Data: The Work Behind Artificial Intelligence
Braz, Matheus Viana
Tubaro, Paola
Casilli, Antonio A.
Human-Computer Interaction
Computers and Society
AI generates both enthusiasm and disillusionment, with promises that often go unfulfilled. It is therefore not surprising that human labor, which is its fundamental component, is also subject to these same deceptions. The development of "smart technologies" depends, at different stages, on a multitude of precarious, underpaid and invisible workers, who, dispersed globally, carry out repetitive, fragmented activities, paid per task and completed in a few seconds. These are workers who label data to train algorithms, through tasks that require the intuitive, creative and cognitive abilities of human beings, such as categorizing images, classifying advertisements, transcribing audio and video, evaluating advertisements, moderating content on social media, labeling human anatomical points of interest, digitizing documents, etc. This form of work is often referred to as "microwork". Our contribution, which documents the conditions of microwork in Brazil and offers portraits of the workers, is a step in the wider effort to overcome the current state of invisibilization. It opens up avenues for future research, with the aim of better characterizing this new form of work, tracing its changes over time in relation to the dynamics of globalization and, ideally, identifying levers for action and transitions.
title Making Data: The Work Behind Artificial Intelligence
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.03694