With Japan facing a worker shortage as its population ages, convenience store shelves are being stocked by robots overseen by remote workers in the Philippines https://restofworld.org/2025/philippines-offshoring-automation-tech-jobs/

Goed om te zien hoe de bewustwording rondom datawerkers, de 150-430 miljoen werkenden die AI trainen en corrigeren, langzaam maar zeker groter wordt. Deze week bij @arjenlubach.bsky.social kwam het onderwerp ook voorbij: youtu.be/mxq4Ne_8ne4?...

𝐖𝐚𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐣𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐧? Samen met onderzoekers van de Universiteit Maastricht / ROA deed ik onderzoek naar dit vraagstuk. Via het YoungOnes platform vulden 1.790 freelancers onze survey in. De eerste inzichten: www.zipconomy.nl/2025/10/waar...

⭐ Those five little stars may seem trivial, but reputation systems are crucial to platform work. On 29 October, @rensec.bsky.social and @martijnarets.bsky.social will present on the good and bad of reputation systems and how data portability may improve them. Register here: www.uu.nl/en/events/on...

Op 29 oktober presenteer ik mijn werk over dataportabiliteit in de kluseconomie tijdens het online seminar "Sustainable Platform work – Studying trust and reputation systems in the platform economy". Meer info en inschrijven: www.uu.nl/en/events/on...

𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐞: 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬 - For another episode of The Gig Work Podcast by WageIndicator Foundation I interviewed Ali Hamriti, founder of Rollee. Check the blog and podcast: gigpedia.org/resources/bl...

My reflections after visiting the International Network of Digital Labor (#INDL8) conference in Bologna. martijnarets.ghost.io/from-bologna...

Event: "Ghostwork, de onzichtbare arbeid achter AI Hoe beschermen we de 150 miljoen datawerkers achter onze AI?" Kom op 15 oktober naar de Hogeschool van Amsterdam en neem deel aan een discussie over hoe we datawerk een plek kunnen geven in discussies over Responsible AI. www.hva.nl/evenementen/...

𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐋𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬: “𝐔𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲, 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲" New podcast, video and blog: gigpedia.org/resources/bl...

The photos of the workshop "Tackling the impersonality of algorithmic management: community-building and social wellbeing among platform workers", organized by @timchristiaens.bsky.social are now online: flic.kr/s/aHBqjCiojx

Insightful presentation by Alessandro Tirapani: "Actually, we have no algorithm: a neo-luddite approach to democratic organisations in the gig economy", based on the case of the CoopCycle.

Moonshot solutions by @casilli.bsky.social

Interesting (as always) contribution by @casilli.bsky.social: "From Resistance to Reimagination: ten years of digital labor activism".

Attending the workshop "Tackling the impersonality of algorithmic management: community building and social well-being among platform workers", hosted by @timchristiaens.bsky.social

Worked with the development team of @freshheads.bsky.social on the preps for the second version of the GigCV API. New features, new fast (and European) hosting and multi language.

European Commission fines Delivery Hero and Glovo €329 million for participation in online food delivery cartel. ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Early morning activity in Nairobi…

Today in Nairobi, I had an interview with Michelle Hassan from the Jobtech Alliance on the opportunities and impact of jobtech platforms in Africa. It was an inspiring conversation about opportunities, challenges and reality checks.

We're hiring! I'll be co-supervising a PhD at Utrecht University on the global governance of socially disruptive technologies. Political philosophy/ethics project focused on legitimacy & good governance. More info: edu.nl/9admd Deadline: June 3, 2025 (apologies for the short notice!)

First pictures made with my ‘new’ analogue Rolleiflex camera.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐲𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐩 𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐫 - in Paris I interviewed @casilli.bsky.social on his work and new book 'Waiting for Robots'. Today I published the podcast, video and blog on our conversation. gigpedia.org/resources/bl...

For the #GigWorkPodcast, I was interviewed by @martijnarets.bsky.social about my latest book “Waiting for Robots. The Hired Hands of Automation” (U. Chicago Press). youtu.be/0oRkW9_Gz54 We spoke for 1 hour 15 minutes and 15 seconds—every instant counts.

Experimenting to combine video with my podcast recordings of The Gig Work Podcast. Impressive how Descript AI helps creating short videos out of the 70-minute interview recording.

Uiteindelijk zijn we allemaal datawerker: bewust en onbewust. Zo is het frame in deze mail dat ik andere mensen help, maar degene die ik écht help is natuurijk Google zelf.

Interesting conversation for The Gig Work Podcast with the co-founder and CEO of Rollee. They are helping credit companies and gig workers to get data from their profiles to create credit scores and by that giving workers better access to loans.

"Content moderators who comb through harmful material uploaded to online platforms have formed a global trade union alliance in a bid to improve working conditions."

DoorDash acquires Deliveroo. With this acquisition DoorDash buys access to new countries, like some in Europe. ir.design-portfolio.co.uk/viewer/79/76...

Today I had a nice interview with Antonio Casilli about the automation of work and the labour behind this automation and AI systems. Podcast, video & blog will be live in 2 weeks.

"They say if slaughterhouses had glass walls, the world would stop eating meat. And if tech companies were to reveal what they make these digital workers do, day in and day out, perhaps the world would stop using their platforms." www.codastory.com/authoritaria...

Paris….

Brazil’s AI-powered social security app has also rejected requests from hundreds of people who live in remote areas and have little digital literacy, often for minor errors restofworld.org/2025/brazil-...

Tech companies are building their riches off of labour extraction. Employing workers through intermediaries allows them to limit their responsibility. “These companies go to African countries, like Kenya, where the government is a bit fragile, the economy, the politics, [are] complicated.”

New data reveals the hidden network of African workers powering AI. They are pushing for greater transparency from the global companies that employ them through outsourcing firms. Reporting by Stephanie Wangari and Gayathri Vaidyanathan on @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2025/big-tec...

In Den Haag for an expert meeting on the (National) implementation of the Platformwork Directive.

"OpenAI is working on its own X-like social network, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter." in the article of @theverge.com Will not work. Although they already have all your data ;-) www.theverge.com/openai/64813...

Towards better conditions for data workers. Read the report + check the video's on our webinar gigpedia.org/resources/bl... and some of my thoughts on the datawork discussion: www.linkedin.com/posts/martij...

More hidden costs of AI and an example how AI companies extract value from others without compensation. Just like this case:

Africa’s data workers are being exploited by foreign tech firms – 4 ways to protect them: theconversation.com/africas-data...

Story of my life ;-)

Learning for my exam 'History of Modern Philosophy'. I use ChatGPT for discussions about philosophers and to stretch my thoughts. Although the answers are a bit boring and neutral, it helps me to create oversight. One example on Berkeley and perceiving in a digital age: chatgpt.com/canvas/share...

Ready for our webinar to discuss the dataworkers behind 'our' AI. We start at 15:00 CET. Feel free to join: wageindicator.org/about/events...

Interesting definition of 'democracy': "19 founders and VCs working with Elon Musk’s DOGE" v/ @techcrunch.com techcrunch.com/2025/03/26/1...

What is the gap between minimal wage and living wage in countries around the world? Interesting oversight by the WageIndicator Foundation.

Very relevant insights in this article on the shift that delivery companies made from (kind of) advocating the importance of the immigrant labour force to… kissing a presidents ass…

Concert of Alan Walker tonight. Great show and performance.

One year ago I celebrated Holi in Mumbai with some dear WageIndicator colleagues. Sweet memories...

Nieuwe blog en podcast: "Ghostwork: de onzichtbare wereld van werk achter AI". Omdat er veel wordt gesproken over de impact van AI op werk, maar niet over de vele miljoenen (!!) werkenden die onze AI voeden en corrigeren. martijnarets.ghost.io/ghostwork-de...

Weekend project: een oude kroketmuur ombouwen tot oplaadstation voor telefoons, horloges, fietslampjes en meer…

My thoughts and lessons learned in a new blog on the two-day conference ‘Future of Work: Reclaiming the value of work in the digital economy’. martijnarets.ghost.io/reclaiming-t...

Anyone who prizes innovation should know that scientific collaboration and iterative, open inquiry and knowledge production is irreplaceable. As @karenhao.bsky.social writes, the damage being done to the US scientific ecosystem will haunt us for generations. www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/21/1...