We are entering an age of automation. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming ever present in our lives; it now powers autonomous cars, content moderation algorithms, and large language models ostensibly operating of their own volition. However, as Phil Jones explores in his book Work without the Worker, AI comes with a dark secret: machine learning does not exist without human exploitation. See, to train AI, vast quantities of labelled and categorised data are necessary. This labelling is not automated, instead, it is performed by ‘clickworkers’.
Clickworkers complete ‘microtasks’. These could include: trawling through video footage differentiating between pedestrians and street lights to calibrate autonomous vehicles; completing surveys identifying what specific combination of words make up violence, sexual abuse, and hate speech to train language models; or classifying facial expressions to refine facial recognition cameras. While microtasks vary, clickwork is consistently monotonous, repetitive work with low wages. With the development of AI, clickwork has become one of the fastest-growing workforces, with estimates suggesting there are over 20 million clickworkers across the globe. However, since most people assume this work is performed by machines rather than human workers, the exploitative practices of this industry have largely gone unchecked.
See Big Tech companies that are dependent on clickwork argue that it provides ‘opportunity’ for impoverished individuals. However, this obscures the reality of these schemes, which primarily serve to generate profits in the Global North by exploiting workers in the Global South. Data labeling for tech companies in the Silicon Valley is most often outsourced to people living in poverty in India, Uganda, Venezuela, the Philippines, Kenya, and Lebanon. For instance, Samasource, the company that provided clickwork to ChatGPT and Facebook, pays refugees in Kenya $1-3 an hour to label data. Despite labeling itself as an “ethical company” and claiming to have lifted over 50,000 people out of poverty, Samasource pays its workers less than a livable wage. Ultimately, this so-called “opportunity” is an illusion. Clickworkers receive no opportunities for promotion, and because clickwork is considered unskilled labor, it does not help people transition to stable jobs. Therefore, with profits going to companies in the Global North and the cost borne by workers in the Global South, these organisations are not benevolently providing jobs to people in need. Instead, they are assisting in neocolonialism to exploit cheap labour.
Wherever clickwork occurs, it is based upon exploitation. In the Global North, clickwork is predominantly performed by prisoners, elderly people who cannot afford to retire, and people who cannot secure other jobs due to health, disability, or education. Except for prisoners, clickworkers in the Global North are self-employed, finding microtasks through online platforms like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk or Crowdflower. Since clickworkers are classified as self-employed, they have no permanent contracts and do not receive guaranteed hours, or sick leave.
While clickworkers are promised flexibility, this too is a scam that, in effect, creates a 24/7 work week. Since clickwork requires instant availability and responsiveness to receive jobs, it can be detrimental to an individual’s mental health. Sônia Coêlho, a 45-year-old clickworker in Brazil, described feeling, “hostage to the screen,” but unable to, “leave because the job market doesn’t… have a place for [her]”. Coêlho works over 12 hours a day while caring for two children and sets alarms in the middle of the night because it improves her chances of securing microtasks. Coêlho’s story is one of millions impacted by these working conditions. Such undefined work hours are typical for gig economy workers and can lead to overwork, sleep deprivation, anxiety, and depression.
Clickworkers’ mental health can also be impacted by exposure to traumatic subject matter. For instance, when ChatGPT was trained to detect prompts that contained violence, Samasource clickworkers in Kenya categorised graphic depictions of a world of terrors — child sexual abuse, bestiality, murder, suicide, torture, self-harm, and incest. In December 2024, over 140 Samasource workers launched a class action lawsuit after being diagnosed with significant mental health issues including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), and major depressive disorder (MDD). They argued this was a direct result of spending over 10 hours per day sorting through footage of the worst horrors that humans are capable of. Despite performing such harrowing work, they were provided with woefully inadequate and inconsistent mental health support. While some clickworkers had sessions with wellness coaches, these were professional life coaches rather than trained psychologists. At best, these coaches provide useless platitudes; at worst, they fuel overwork by urging their ‘patients’ to simply work harder.
Ultimately, exploitation is not new. While manual labour conditions have improved with unionisation, since clickworkers work remotely, this isolation makes collective bargaining near impossible. Currently, just 5% of clickworkers are protected by a union. Furthermore, unlike traditional workers, clickworkers take commands generated by algorithms instead of people. This means there is little room to negotiate, thus subjecting clickworkers to more demanding workplace control.
Those who advocate for AI argue that the potential benefits are world-changing. It has been claimed that AI will reshape society, cure diseases, and solve the climate crisis. However, the benefits are not felt equally; in the hour it takes Jeff Bezos to make $8 million, an Amazon clickworker worker receives less than $2. Furthermore, despite clickwork being essential for Tesla’s market capitalisation of $550 billion, the workers responsible for labelling over 75% of Tesla’s data were paid less than $1 an hour. This is not a livable wage and is certainly not enough to ever afford a Tesla.
Clickwork represents a cheap instrumentalisation of humanity and allows large corporations to treat people as merely a means to a profitable end. A small step in reducing this exploitation is to broaden the definition of employees to include those in the digital gig economy, ensuring they receive vital protections like minimum pay, maximum hours, and superannuation. However, if we want to continue to dream of “ethical AI”, we cannot simply tinker within the existing capitalist framework; we will need a radical overhaul of the current system of AI production.
