The Glamorisation of Unpaid Labour: AI and its Influencers

Global South workers bear disproportionate costs of AI development: The paper identifies that unpaid labor and societal harms generated by Digital Value Networks (DVNs) disproportionately affect workers in Africa, Latin America, and India, revealing how AI advancement often relies on exploiting workers in economically vulnerable regions rather than benefiting them.

Gig work platforms enable unethical automation of human tasks: The research documents how companies use gig work platforms to automate Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) through unethical practices, essentially outsourcing AI training work to underpaid or unpaid workers without adequate protections or compensation.

Influencers are being used to extract data without fair compensation: The paper highlights how social media influencers are being leveraged to collect user data at scale, with their labor and their audiences' data being capitalized upon by corporations while influencers receive little to no fair compensation for this value extraction.

Corporate interests currently prioritize profit over worker welfare: The research argues that current AI development prioritizes corporate interests over societal betterment, demonstrating a systemic misalignment between who benefits from AI and who bears its costs.

Regulation and ethical frameworks are necessary for responsible AI: The paper calls for regulatory approaches and responsible AI development practices specifically focused on protecting worker rights and user data practices in digital value networks.