‘Feeding the Machine’ Spotlights the Human Laborers Behind AI

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tech companies often portray their AI products as self-sufficient systems that learn from large datasets. However, AI development in reality relies heavily on a global workforce of undervalued workers, including data annotators, content moderators and machine learning engineers, who endure long hours for low pay while performing repetitive tasks. A new book, “Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labor Powering A.I.”, exposes the harsh conditions these workers face and the human labor essential to AI’s growth. We talk with one of the book’s authors, James Muldoon, to learn more and how we can better protect the rights of low-wage AI workers. Guests: James Muldoon, Associate Professor, University of Essex - Research Associate at University of Oxford’s Internet Institute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:31.1	Coming up on forum, the human labor driving AI.
1:35.2	Tech companies like to present their AI products as autonomous machines that teach themselves,
1:41.1	but in reality, millions of workers across the globe, often working for meager
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