OpenAI, DeepSeek and the Rise of a ‘Digital Lumpenproletariat’: DiPLab’s Antonio Casilli Interviewed on Italian National Radio

Antonio Casilli, professor of Sociology at the Polytechnic Institute of Paris and co-director of the DiPLab research group, recently featured on Italy’s national radio program Eta Beta, hosted by Massimo Cerofolini on Rai Radio1, to discuss the dark side of artificial intelligence.

In the interview, Casilli shed light on the invisible workforce behind AI’s apparent automation—millions of precarious, underpaid workers across Africa, Asia, and South America who perform the “dirty work” powering AI systems. For mere pennies per hour, these digital laborers filter disturbing content including graphic violence and sexual abuse, annotate images and videos, correct algorithm errors, train self-driving cars, and even produce commissioned social media engagement.

The DiPLab director, author of the award-winning book Waiting for Robots. The Hired Hands of Automation, also highlighted how everyday users unknowingly contribute free labor to improve AI models like American-made ChatGPT or Chinese-developed DeepSeek, further entrenching this exploitative system.