August M
The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is creating a vast workforce of hidden laborers tasked with training machines behind the scenes.
Some workers say the job has left them emotionally exhausted after spending long hours reviewing disturbing or deeply personal content to improve AI systems used around the world, reports DR News.
Watching porn daily
In an interview featured by Danish broadcaster DR News, Kenyan data worker Michael Geoffrey Asia described spending eight hours a day reviewing pornography to help train AI systems.
For months, he said he watched explicit videos and added detailed labels so algorithms could recognise different types of content.
“It can be hardcore, doggy-style or missionary position,” he said while explaining the tagging process used to categorise videos.
According to DR’s podcast Prompt, the work is part of a global industry where low-paid contractors help improve artificial intelligence systems for major technology companies.
Emotional toll
Asia said the work eventually affected his physical and mental health.
“If you watch porn for eight hours a day, the body will initially react until it shuts down,” he said.
“My whole body shut down. At that time, if I saw a naked person, my body wouldn’t react anymore because it had destroyed something in you.”
He later stopped working after developing sleep problems, memory issues and difficulties with intimacy.
Humans behind AI
Asia also described working as a “chatbot” operator, pretending to be artificial intelligence while chatting and flirting with online users.
“They didn’t know they were talking to a human being,” he said.
He has since published a book about the experience and helped launch an organisation representing Kenyan data workers, joking that “AI” stands for “African Intelligence”.
Global industry
Professor Mikkel Flyverbom of Copenhagen Business School told DR News that this kind of AI training work is no longer limited to countries such as Kenya or the Philippines.
Platforms are increasingly recruiting doctors, programmers and financial experts to help refine AI responses through a process known as Reinforcement Learning through Human Feedback, or RLHF.
“It’s a type of work that constantly requires you to be on your feet,” Flyverbom said.
Growing scrutiny
The debate over hidden AIabor intensified after reports that Meta ended cooperation with outsourcing company Sama following allegations involving the review of sensitive user recordings.
According to Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten, private footage captured through Meta smart glasses was reportedly sent to data centres in Kenya for review.
Asia said consumers should remember the human labor behind advanced technologies.
“When they use a self-driving car, remember that there are people who have suffered day and night,” he said.
Sources: DR News, Prompt podcast, Svenska Dagbladet, Göteborgs-Posten
