Another "AI" (Slop) Use Cases Turns Out to be a Fraud
A Microsoft-funded firm shut down after it turned out that what it called "AI" was in fact low-paid Indians pretending to be "AI". That Microsoft-funded firm shut down only after it had SLAPPed the media that exposed this fraud. Then it claimed to have no money to cover the cost of SLAPP, including various other liabilities.
Not too long age it was revealed that Amazon and "just walk out" was a lie, not "AI". Again, low-paid Indians, not computer programs (dubbed "AI"), did the invisible labour.
Why do we allow GAFAM get away with such fraud? Where are the punishments and repercussions? Even the Linux Foundation has just participated in this kind of fraud; Microsoft paid the Linux Foundation to do this. So did Bill Epsteingate.
It's just about as bad as it sounds. Society or "the industry" rewards fraud . Those who talk about this fraud get SLAPPed. Certain workers fall upwards.
Today, a reader of ours sent along "Cheap African labor supports online intimacy" by Michael Geoffrey Asia.
Preface:
These are the stories of chat moderators and data annotation workers. My name is Michael Geoffrey Abuyabo Asia. I am an ex-chat moderator and data worker who has served across multiple global outsourcing platforms. I worked on Meta-related projects under Sama and later took on roles at CloudFactory, TELUS International, TransPerfect DataForce, Appen, and NMS Philippines. In much of this work, I was tasked with impersonating and training AI companions -- performing emotional labor that required intense psychological presence while remaining entirely invisible to the users who interacted with these systems.Like many of us, I entered this work through subcontracting structures that deliberately obscure responsibility. The labor is fragmented, undervalued, and consistently portrayed as "simple," even as it exposes workers to disturbing content and demands finely tuned emotional performance. These narratives of "low-skill" work hide a deeper reality: a rapidly expanding industry that relies on hidden human labor while offering minimal protections, unstable contracts, and little recognition.
This report is an account of my own experiences--experiences widely shared by others doing this work. For this study, I interviewed seven of my colleagues, drawing on their testimonies and my lived experience to document the pressures, harms, and unresolved grievances shaping this sector. Funded by the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), the Weizenbaum Institute, and Technische Universitat Berlin, the Data Workers' Inquiry foregrounds the voices and demands of data workers. It seeks to prevent further violations, establish the facts of this evolving industry, and foster the solidarity needed for meaningful change.
Related: Your sexy AI girlfriend is really an underpaid guy in Kenya
So there goes out the window another alleged "use case" of "AI". It's not even a computer .
Remember that "OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour to Make ChatGPT Less Toxic". They say "AI" will "replace humans", but all we see is so-called "AI companies" (in this case Microsoft) making slavery or turning humans into slaves . █