A must read! Great investigation into the strategy of mass recruitment used by AI data work firms. (And featuring lots of great folks like @joan1k.bsky.social @ephantuskanyugi.bsky.social @datalabelers.bsky.social @casilli.bsky.social @adiod.bsky.social)

Indeed, @adiod.bsky.social writes: “The choice facing Africa is...continue as a data colony providing cheap labour for surveillance tools that serve foreign interests, or assert digital sovereignty by developing governance frameworks that prioritise African lives” africainfact.com/ai-surveilla...

Excited to be introducing this latest Inquiry...head to the data workers inquiry website and check out this new inquiry by @joan1k.bsky.social of the @datalabelers.bsky.social

New Inquiry!!

Caught up this week with @krystalkauffman.bsky.social and @adiod.bsky.social to plot what’s next for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social: new inquiries, new events, and some big ideas in the works. More soon!

Today, @milamiceli.bsky.social, @krystalkauffman.bsky.social and @adiod.bsky.social from the DWI team are in Barcelona to meet with some of these data workers. 📍Today at 5 PM. The event is open and anyone can attend! 👉 Learn more here: www.ibei.org/es/mesa-redo...

Alert! We have a powerful mental health intervention designed by data workers, for data workers. Drawing on her experience as a former content moderator and trained psychologist, our brilliant co-researcher Kauna Malgwi created a much-needed support system rooted in lived experience. Take a look 👇🏾

@adiod.bsky.social presenting at the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Flashpoint Symposium in Bremen. June 4th, 2025

🚨New Inquiry!! Today, we present Kauna’s mental healthcare proposal tailored specifically to data workers - addressing PTSD, burnout, depression, and more. Her plan delivers a way forward for those affected and a call for change. data-workers.org/kauna/ #MentalHealthInTech #DataWorkersInquiry

New podcast! @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social are the authors of The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want, just out from HarperCollins. Business Insider calls it a “funny and irreverent deconstruction of AI.”

Madison! Tonight, @emilymbender.bsky.social and I will be at @roomofonesownbooks.bsky.social, in conversation with the great @millbot.bsky.social about our book! Come through! roomofonesown.com/event/2025-0...

The new episode of the "Machines That Fail Us" podcast is out now! Glad to host @adiod.bsky.social from @dairinstitute.bsky.social for a chat on the hidden human work behind AI training. Listen here on the @unisg.ch website or on your preferred audio platform ⤵️ www.unisg.ch/en/newsroom/...

The new episode of the "Machines That Fail Us" podcast is out now! Glad to host @adiod.bsky.social for a chat on the hidden human work (and nature) behind artificial intelligence. Listen here on the @unisg.ch website or on your preferred audio and podcasting platform ⤵️

In the new episode of our podcast "Machines That Fail Us", host @philipdisalvo.bsky.social discusses with @adiod.bsky.social the invisible labor behind #AI systems and the various inequalities within the AI industry. #GenerativeAI 🎧Find out more and listen to new episode: unisg.link/mio

Join us now on Twitch

Acaba de ir ao ar o volume 3 do Carbono. Orgulhosamente apresentamos uma entrevista com o escritor colombiano Barragán Castro, artigos de Liliana Doganova, @lclaberge.bsky.social e @adiod.bsky.social e uma resenha crítica de Helena Lukianski. Acessem e divulguem: www.ufrgs.br/carbono

⬆️ Speakers include Michael Connor of Open MIC, Nadira Narine of @iccr.bsky.social, Brandon Rees of @aflcio.org, @adiod.bsky.social of @dairinstitute.bsky.social & Rosa Curling of Foxglove. Register here for Zoom: loom.ly/IaYBTBU

If you buy into the warped "DEI" narrative that portrays Black people as incompetent, while also defending Elmo’s fascist drivel, know this—I detest you deeply. You are a profoundly foolish blob of flesh masquerading as a person.

This event is kindly supported by @ainowinstitute.bsky.social @dairinstitute.bsky.social @turkopticon.bsky.social and the Data Workers' Inquiry team: @krystalkauffman.bsky.social, @adiod.bsky.social, @timnitgebru.bsky.social, @alexhanna.bsky.social

Digital labor platforms in Africa offer both opportunities & challenges, with marginalized workers facing dispossession despite tech advancements. @adiod.bsky.social calls for policy reforms to protect worker autonomy & ensure equitable participation in economic shifts ➡️ doi.org/10.34669/wi....

One of the most despair-inducing moments is talking to "non-scholars/activists" about AI. Their delight and amazement make me feel like Cassandra, warning of the labor exploitation and copyright theft propping up this shiny facade, only to be met with blank stares and or indifference

After reading this article. leedsinternationalfestival.com/puny-gods-an... , my brother said, "You really hate AI." And I said, no, I dont hate AI, I hate the exploitation embedded in AI. Despite writing and researching on it for 3 years now, each conversation with a data workers leaves me scarred

"A pesar de que trabajamos para estas grandes empresas, somos la mano de obra barata y descartable para ellos": Oskarina Fuentes frente al Parlamento Europeo junto a @milamiceli.bsky.social hablando sobre la extrema precariedad de los trabajadores de datos de la industria de la IA 📢 #dataworkers

AI is neither Artificial nor Intelligent. Behind the sleek algorithms are real human workers—tagging, labeling, moderating—often underpaid and exploited. The intelligence? It’s extracted labor. The artificial? Just a narrative to obscure the human cost.

I made this thread on that other app, and thought I'd share it here as well, though my feeling is folk here are not as impervious to reading and critical thinking. I got annoyed at some well.meaning people (at least so I thought) saying "woke mind virus" and thought I'd talk about being woke

One of the most frustrating things about academia is in addition to the low salaries, being expected to front your own money for travel, and then being treated with suspicion when you request reimbursement—like you're pulling some elaborate heist.

Over the last few months I've been in a creative frenzy and have finished my short story collection, now time to hunt for a literary agent.... any leads to agents who particularly have interest in Africa/Black writers?