Meta suppressed research that might have illuminated potential safety risks to children and teens on the company’s virtual reality devices and apps. . the company deployed its legal team to screen, edit and sometimes veto internal research about youth safety www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

“What older adults fear is not death. ‘I’ve lived long enough,’ they tell us. What they fear the most is loneliness.” AI robot dolls are helping South Korea’s seniors feel less alone https://restofworld.org/2025/korea-ai-robot-senior-care-hyodol

AI chatbots are starting to replace the low-wage workers, known as “chatters,” who impersonate OnlyFans stars in direct messaging with fans. Chatters say that rising sales quotas have made their work more stressful and exhausting https://restofworld.org/2025/onlyfans-ai-dm-bots

A hidden network handles chats for OnlyFans stars. AI could take over -- but maybe, not yet. “We keyboard smash, intentionally misspell, and use Gen Z slang. I don’t think AI is at that level of flirting yet” -- by Michael Beltran in @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2025/onlyfan...

The UAE plans to become the world’s testing ground for autonomous vehicles and upend the lives of 30,000 cabbies in the process. Amar Diwakar in @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2025/uae-rob...

This is the giant Canary in the coal mine of what AI will do to education. Improperly adopted, it will destroy critical thinking and educational attainment. For the oligarchs, this is a feature of AI, not a bug. restofworld.org/2025/colombi...

Drones, AI and robot pickers: meet the fully autonomous farm www.wsj.com/tech/autonom...

Scarred by long hours, low pay, and a hostile work culture, many chip workers for Samsung are leaving for competitors, including American companies. Michelle Kim's reporting from Seoul for @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2025/samsung...

A record number of people are leaving the Philippines to work in Taiwanese semiconductor factories, where they face long shifts, low pay, unequal treatment and the threat of deportation, report Hsiuwen Liu and @michaelbeltran.bsky.social for @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2025/filipin...

Your next boss might be an app. Read @gayathriv.bsky.social on how VC money is fueling a global boom in worker surveillance tech restofworld.org/2025/employe...

In Dubai’s AI gold rush, tech workers from the West are often headhunted for top positions at high salaries. Experienced AI experts from South Asia and Ukraine fill the lower ranks, for lower pay. Our new story: restofworld.org/2025/golden-...

Taiwan has recruited a record number of people from nearby nations to meet the surge in demand for chips for AI. These workers are usually represented by brokers, who have so much control over their lives that many migrants feel trapped and exploited restofworld.org/2025/taiwan-...

Byju Raveendran, India’s edtech titan, is facing a $533M fraud scandal. From Dubai, the enigmatic founder of Byju’s recounts how he made his empire — and vows to rebuild it. @yudhijit.bsky.social reports for @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2025/byjus-o...

Speaking of scams: @restofworld.org reports that young Indonesians who think they are applying for tech jobs are being trafficked to scam farms, where they are forced to use AI-generated deepfakes, voice clones, and other tech to con people out of their savings. restofworld.org/2025/fake-jo...

I'm not Indonesian but I live in SEA and KEEP getting these really weird tech interview offers. I always ask them to email if they are serious, and either they disappear, and the next day, the account is deleted, or they say "later, after you've interviewed, we'll email"

Young Indonesians are increasingly falling for fraudulent job ads on Telegram and Facebook, and getting trafficked to scam farms in Southeast Asia. Once there, they are forced to use AI to con people into parting with their life savings restofworld.org/2025/fake-jo...

Progress does not have to involve gobbling up all the content on the internet and hiring marginalized workers to process it - @_KarenHao, author of Empire of AI (out soon!). Here's a Q&A with @michelletomkim - restofworld.org/2025/karen-h...

Robot chefs are replacing humans at some South Korean restaurants. Tech companies say robots can help solve labor shortages in the aging country, but workers say they've been demoted from chefs to cleaning staff, and diners are complaining about the food. Full story: restofworld.org/2025/robot-c...

Facing a penalty for data breaches, Meta is threatening to pull WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram from Nigeria New from @tarykuh.bsky.social: restofworld.org/2025/meta-ni...

Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project. nymag.com/intelligence...

Our very own @deeplab.bsky.social Wagner Alves da Silva, is featured in this brilliant Rest of World article on Brazil’s child influencer industry. restofworld.org/2025/brazil-...

Who's watching out for the kidfluencers? Prosecutors in Brazil are going after TikTok for allowing child labor on the app restofworld.org/2025/brazil-...

“hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans do informal work for the tech industry… But with the rise of generative AI, such digital jobs have become scarce and poorly paid” restofworld.org/2025/generat...

Turkey’s translators are training the AI tools that will replace them. Human fallout may include being replaced by LLMs, diminished skills, and fewer career options for all but the elite scholars. By Kaya Genc in @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2025/turkeys...

Student interns as young as 15 double up as labor in Taiwan's semiconductor factories which supply Apple, Microsoft and others. "The time spent in school is very, very little — sometimes less than two days a week." - by Hsiuwen Liu in @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2025/taiwan-...

Although earlier generations of elite Chinese tech workers preferred Silicon Valley jobs for higher salaries and a chance to work alongside the world’s top innovators, a growing share of young AI engineers are choosing to stay home. - by @violazhou.bsky.social restofworld.org/2025/china-a...

AI puts pressure on workers to increase productivity, without corresponding increases in wages or benefits, the Code AI coalition said. In @restofworld.org, by Michael Beltran restofworld.org/2025/code-ai...

There is an industrywide “code of silence” on AI, Porquia told Rest of World. “We can’t say anything bad,” he said. “Because BPOs are prepping for a full-blown AI implementation, they’re trying to hide the exploitation behind it.” restofworld.org/2025/code-ai...

Chinese apps have made social shopping mainstream, in contrast to Western social networks which focus on advertising - by Tiffany Ap and @kinlinglo.bsky.social restofworld.org/2025/tiktok-...

“I’m seriously considering switching back to a gas-fueled car.” An electricity shortage in Ecuador is driving some EV buyers to reconsider restofworld.org/2025/ecuador...

Thousands of Ecuadorians bought EVs in the past two years. But continuous power cuts are threatening the country’s EV ambitions - by @dandiba.bsky.social and Carolina Loza León restofworld.org/2025/ecuador... ... in @restofworld.org

Starlink is cheaper than regular internet in some African countries - by @khadijaalam.bsky.social and @tarykuh.bsky.social

"GPT-5 would effectively have a PhD in some tasks. It is hiring people to write fresh software code or solve math problems for Orion to learn from. The workers, some of whom are software engineers and mathematicians, also share explanations for their work with" GPT-5. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...

It’s the Most Indispensable Machine in the World—and It Depends on This Woman - Behind the scenes at a semiconductor fab, and the people maintaining its machines www.wsj.com/tech/ai/asml...

WhatsApp is the world’s most widely used messaging app, with 2 billion daily users, who send 100 billion messages every day in 60 languages across 180 countries. An in-depth look at how it grew so big and what comes next, reports @issielapowsky for @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2024/how-wha...

Workers say Apple does “physical, video and electronic surveillance of them” even when they are at home and after they stop working for Apple" -- in @semafor.com www.semafor.com/article/12/0...

We have just published this major new report - kindly supported by @jrct.bsky.social and @trustforlondon.bsky.social - on emotion-tracking tech in the workplace, and 'Affective Algorithmic Management.' Current legal frameworks don't adequately cover this new frontier. www.ifow.org/publications...

In 2024, tech pushed people to start businesses, take on new majors, and move across the Pacific to seek better job prospects. By @tarykuh.bsky.social, @violazhou.bsky.social and Lam Le. restofworld.org/2024/tech-trends-global-change-2024

The US isn't the only country with China tariff fever. Great breakdown from @restofworld.org on how governments around the world are fending off the Chinese tech behemoth

Because of Uber’s stellar track record with labor, there’s no need at all to wonder how workers will be treated in this wing of their empire.

A Stanford researcher claims his algorithm shows that ~10% of software engineers "do nothing" and are "Ghost Engineers" Hard to assess whether this is true, but algorithmic bosses are coming to Silicon Valley & workplace surveillance is about to get much worse www.404media.co/are-overempl...

Call center workers in the Philippines are at the forefront of advanced AI. The tools monitor calls, assist with customers, and score performance. “AI is supposed to make our lives easier, but I just see it as my boss” - by Michael Beltran in @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2024/ai-resh...

India is calling out inequalities on behalf of the global south at COP28. But its coal use is rising. My story for Nature www.nature.com/articles/d41...

What footprints are these? As seen in a supermarket parking lot. 🐦‍⬛