DiPLab becomes Digital Infrastructures, Power and Labor!

Today’s conference, held at Télécom Paris by Antonio Casilli and titled “AI Everywhere, Labor Everywhere,” was the occasion to revisit almost a decade of work across 30 countries.

For the past 10 years, DiPLab has been researching data work in various countries, unveiling hidden labor, poor working conditions, and power dynamics, alongside AI supply chains.

Recently, our research has expanded beyond strictly focusing on labor to include other dynamics and larger consequences of data work and data infrastructures, such as environmental impacts, postcolonial dependencies, and the overall hidden costs of AI.

On this occasion, we are thrilled to announce that DiPLab now stands for Digital Infrastructures, Power and Labor.

We are also thrilled to announce that new members are joining us on this journey.

Faculty

Pauline Gourlet: Designer and Associate Professor at Télécom Paris. She conducts action research and investigates controversies related to digital infrastructures, particularly data centres, and studies actual work practices, particularly workers’ negotiating capacities. She is a member of L’Atelier des chercheurs, a collective of designers that produces digital tools.

Tiphaine Viard: Sociologist and computer scientist, Associate Professor at Télécom Paris. She maps the worlds of AI and investigates how information circulates between different actors and institutions, with the aim of making the hidden costs of AI tangible.

Laure Muselli: Associate Professor in Management Sciences at Télécom Paris. She studies volunteer work and cooperation in free software, and investigates the transformation of professions related to digital technologies.

Louis Pape: Economist and Associate Professor at Télécom Paris. His researches focuses on the impact of technological advances on labour markets, as well as competition and regulatory issues in digital sectors

Research Engineers

Stella Lopez: Sociologist, adjunct lecturer at Télécom Paris and research engineer (projetcts SEED and VOLI). Her research focus on resistance within data work.

PhD

Adrián Lombera: Interaction designer and PhD candidate researching artificial intelligence, based in Barcelona. He teaches AI and digital product design at the Elisava (Barcelona School of Design and Engineering).

Neil Seghier: PhD candidate at EHESS (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences), Paris, France. His research examines content moderation and its legal frameworks as well as the regulation of digital platforms

Research Associates

Joan Kinyua: President of the Data Labelers Association (DLA), a worker-led organisation based in Nairobi.
DLA defends the rights of the data workers who train AI systems, campaigning for fair pay, mental health support and better working conditions.

Marco Marrone: Researcher in sociology of work at the University of Salento. His research focuses on platform capitalism, digital labour and algorithmic management. More recently, his work has turned to the hidden human labour behind artificial intelligence, including data work and content moderation.

With this expanded research agenda and new members joining the team, DiPLab looks forward continuing its investigation of the social, political, economic and environmental dimensions of digital infrastructures and AI.