The Défenseur des droits, France’s national rights watchdog, has just made public their latest decision (Decision No. 2025-086) concerning a major French platform that offers internet users micro-tasks in exchange for payment. This landmark ruling follows an in-depth investigation into discriminatory recruitment practices—based on nationality, bank domiciliation, and place of residence—brought to light with the support of DiPLab’s research, after the French data authority CNIL – Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés had already flagged the platform. DiPLab’s 104-page anonymized report “Discriminations and vulnerabilities in France’s micro-work platforms” (in French) provided critical evidence and analysis. Our key scientific contribution was the development of a “vulnerability index,” a novel statistical measure that reveals how economic precarity can lead to indirect discrimination among microworkers. This tool—pioneering in its application to platform-based data work—helped demonstrate how structural conditions on these platforms can unfairly disadvantage certain groups. The Défenseur des Droits’ final recommendations to the platform include eliminating discriminatory registration criteria, increasing transparency in worker evaluation and payment systems, limiting intrusive personal data collection, and auditing algorithmic systems for potential biases. This decision carries significant implications for DiPLab. Being formally consulted and cited in such a high-level ruling affirms the scientific value and societal relevance of our work. It validates our methodological innovations—particularly the vulnerability Inde—as tools for understanding and addressing structural inequalities in digital labor. The outcome strengthens DiPLab’s position as a trusted partner for institutions, NGOs, and regulators working on platform fairness and algorithmic accountability, while providing a concrete case study that will inform future research. For a preview of our continuing work in this area, we invite you to attend our upcoming presentation at the INSNA Sunbelt Social Network Conference (June 23–29, 2025, Paris). Paola Tubaro, Antonio Casilli, José Luis Molina, and Antonio Santos-Ortega will present a comparative study on data worker vulnerability in France and Spain (see link in comment).

Our DiPLab seminar will welcome on July 03, 2025, at 3:30 PM CET, Professor Francisca Gutiérrez Crocco (Universidad Austral de Chile). The seminar will be held both in person and online, at ISC-PIF, 113 rue Nationale, 75013 Paris, France. To register, click on the button below and fill out the form. The seminar is free to attend and in-person. Register to seminar Patching Algorithmic Management in Digital Delivery Platforms > In this Seminar, I will develop the concept of patching to analyse how digital > platforms maintain algorithmic power in the face of worker disruption. Drawing > on a four-year qualitative study of food delivery services in Chile and > Argentina, I will shift the analytical focus from couriers to support staff—an > often overlooked group tasked with resolving algorithmic failures. I will > describe five key functions that support staff perform to sustain platform > control over couriers: detecting disruptions, prioritising threats, creating > and implementing solutions, and imitating algorithmic outputs. I will argue > that platform control over couriers relies not only on automated decisions but > also on discretionary, often concealed, human interventions. While support > staff play a pivotal role in stabilising systems, they themselves are > subjected to tight algorithmic surveillance and managerial control. These > findings provide a socio-technical account of algorithmic management that > challenges technological determinism, highlighting the labour embedded in > supposedly automated processes. Francisca Gutiérrez Crocco holds a PhD in Sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She currently works as a professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile and as a researcher at the Millennium Nucleus for the Evolution of Work. She has led several research projects on labour transformations in Latin America, funded by grants from the Chilean Research and Development Agency and other international organisations such as the Internet Society Foundation. She has also worked as a consultant for trade unions, the Chilean government, the ILO and ECLAC, among other organisations. Her work has been published in leading labour journals such as the International Labour Review, Work, Employment and Society and Employee Relations.

DiPLab’s Antonio Casilli was interviewed by journalist Massimo Cerofolini in the show EtaBeta on Radio1 Rai, italian national radio brodcast. Here’s the complete interview. Their conversation revolves around two recent stories, that reveal deeper truths about today’s tech and political landscapes. First, Builder.ai—a company claiming full automation in app development—was exposed as relying on hundreds of human developers in India. It’s another example of tech companies disguising cheap labor as artificial intelligence, a pattern long studied by researchers at DiPLab. Second, how Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s breakup isn’t just a personal feud. It reflects a deeper conflict between two forms of right-wing capitalism: Trump’s old-school, protectionist, real estate-driven model vs. Musk’s futuristic, tech-centered, data-fueled empire. According to Casilli, both are authoritarian and exploitative, but they represent competing visions of power and profit.

On 16-17 May 2025, DiPLab’s Paola Tubaro was invited by the French Institute in Argentina to participate in its landmark event “Night of Ideas.” At world-famous Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, she spoke in panels that provocatively questioned the “new voluntary servitude” of platform work and asked whether “in AI we trust?” On 20 May, she gave a talk on “The Future of Work and AI” at the prestigious University of Buenos Aires. She presented some results of her research on digital labor and its role in AI production, developed in the framework of the DiPLab research program. No Caption No Caption No Caption No Caption

DiPLab’s Antonio Casilli was interviewed by Martijn Arets in the WageIndicator Foundation Gig Work Podcast about his latest book Waiting for Robots. The Hired Hands of Automation (University of Chicago Press, 2025). THE MYTH OF AUTOMATION: HOW AI IS AND WILL REMAIN DEPENDENT ON CHEAP HUMAN LABOUR -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Artificial intelligence (AI) is and will remain dependent on human labour. The people who do the work behind AI systems are often invisible. This carries risks of poor working conditions, low wages and inadequate protection for workers. How does this situation arise, and how can we ensure that the many invisible data workers also benefit from technological developments? For the WageIndicator Foundation’s Gig Work Podcast, I spoke with Professor Antonio Casilli (Institut Polytechnique de Paris), author of the book Waiting for Robots, the Hired Hands of Automation. Listen to this podcast episode on Spotify SCOOBY-DOO IN THE WORLD OF PLATFORM WORK ‘Me and my team are like Scooby-Doo: we travel all over the world investigating mysteries,’ says Casilli. ‘We conduct empirical research into artificial intelligence and how it is produced. Our focus is not on the new possibilities of AI, but on the development process: who is working behind the scenes to make AI possible? His research team is called Diplab, which stands for Digital Platform Labor. They have developed a very broad view of automation. THE MYTH OF AUTOMATION The dream of automating work is not new: Thomas Mortimer, among others, wrote in 1801 about a machine that would be capable of making human labour ‘almost completely superfluous’. ‘Technologists and economists have been looking for ways to make labour more efficient for centuries,’ says Casilli. ‘The industrial revolution saw the emergence of the first machines, such as the steam engine and the Spinning Jenny. Every innovation came with great promises. They would save us many hours of work. But nothing could be further from the truth.’ Many predictions about automation were overstated. Studies between 2013 and 2024 claimed that robots would replace 46-47% of all jobs. Casilli: ‘Organisations such as the OECD and ILO have shown that this is not true. Even with additional crises such as climate change, geopolitical tensions and a pandemic, global unemployment has not risen. In fact, in 2025, people will be working more than ever.’ The problem lies in the methodology used by these researchers, explains the professor. ‘They take a profession and break it down into tasks. If they expect AI to replace 60% of the tasks, they conclude that the job will disappear. But that’s not how it works in practice. Often, employees simply get new tasks.’ INFLUENCE OF PLATFORMISATION According to Casilli, the biggest change in recent years is not automation, but platformisation. Companies such as Uber, Amazon and Meta use huge amounts of data to connect supply and demand and organise work. They also use all this data to train AI systems. For example, they build software such as ChatGPT (the P stands for ‘Pretrained’) and the technology behind self-driving cars. ‘What is often forgotten or ignored is how many people are involved in this,‘ says the researcher. “The promise of AI is that systems can take over human cognitive tasks. But in reality, many so-called ”automatic’ processes depend on human labour. The people who do this work are often invisible and poorly paid.’ This is not a recent phenomenon: Google, for example, has had its own platform, Raterhub, since 2007, where data workers verify search results and thus improve the search engine’s algorithms. Amazon Mechanical Turk, the platform used by Amazon and also available to external customers, makes a clear reference to the myth surrounding AI and its dependence on human labour. The Mechanical Turk after which the platform is named is the ‘chess robot’ invented in 1770, which travelled the world for 84 years as an example of automation. Later, it turned out that there was a person (often described as disabled or underage, in any case not a chess master) inside the machine and there was little automation involved. Automation does not lead to less work, but to different, degraded form of work. ‘Big tech companies prefer not to talk about that. It undermines the narrative that AI is truly intelligent. In reality, people are working more than ever, but sometimes under worse conditions than before.’ WHO ARE THESE DATA WORKERS? Data workers collect, organise and improve data. Without them, AI would not work. Take image recognition, for example: AI learns what a cat is by analysing millions of images of cats. ‘People have to label those images first. It seems like simple work, but it’s a skill in itself. Yet these data workers often receive remuneration that is not commensurate with their efforts,’ says Casilli. ‘In countries such as Kenya, the monthly wage for these data workers is around $400. That’s not enough to make ends meet.’ Casilli emphasises that this is not a temporary phase. ‘Data work will remain necessary as long as we continue to develop AI,’ he says. ‘We have to constantly train the systems, adapt them to new customer requirements and check them for errors. World Bank or Oxford estimates point towards a ballpark figure of 150 million such workers worldwide, and that number is only growing. That’s another reason why it’s important to take a critical look at their working conditions.’ YOU ARE A DATA WORKER TOO In his book Waiting for Robots, Antonio Casilli mentions a group of digital workers who are often overlooked: social network labourers. This basically includes everyone with a smartphone. Through our daily online activities, we train the AI of large tech companies. We teach AI what a traffic light is by filling in ReCaptchas. When we like social media posts, we teach systems which images are attractive. So we provide value to AI systems, but we are usually not paid for it. We are both users and producers of data. This raises an interesting question: is this work or not? Casilli sees that this form of labour reinforces existing power structures and unequal labour relations. He and his team have been working with both policymakers and unions to bring this to light. ‘Tech engineers at companies like Google earn high salaries, while data workers in India, Venezuela and Madagascar are underpaid. This follows colonial patterns. India carries out data work for English-speaking countries, while French companies outsource work to French-speaking countries in Africa.’ WHAT CAN WE DO? What can we do about this? He describes this in the last chapter of his book ‘What is to be done?’, a tongue-in-cheek quote from Vladimir Lenin. According to Casilli, a systemic approach is needed to improve the conditions of all data workers worldwide. ‘A solution for a specific group will not work in the end. We need to look for a universal strategy.’ He distinguishes between three types of solutions: regulation, collective platform initiatives, and a global redistribution system: 1. Regulation: Spain, for example, has introduced the Riders’ Law and the European Union is working on guidelines for platform workers. “These are steps in the right direction, but this type of regulation needs to be applied more broadly. After all, tech companies operate globally.” 2. Platform cooperatives: Workers can set up their own platforms in which they have a say in wages and working conditions. ‘This is already happening on a small scale, but deserves more attention.’ 3. Redistribution: Large tech companies can be taxed and the proceeds used for a universal basic income for data workers. Importantly, Casilli states that this UBI is neither connected to a “robot tax” (as he doesn’t see robots replacing workers) nor it is intended to replace welfare assistance (as it should be paid regardless of other social benefits). ‘This will ensure greater fairness.’ By combining these three strategies, the professor hopes that we can create a fairer and more sustainable system. ‘Tech companies must take responsibility for all their workers, including the invisible ones who manufacture their data,’ says Casilli. ‘I am concerned about this situation: wages are far below the minimum and even basic health and safety rules are not always observed.’ Casilli believes that organisations such as the WageIndicator Foundation and the Fairwork project are making an important contribution. ‘These organisations set standards for fair wages and working conditions, and these are desperately needed.’ ENFORCEMENT, COLLECTIVE ACTION, AND USER RESPONSIBILITY After several interviews on this topic, I personally believe that, besides the solutions that Casilli provides, it is also important to enforce existing regulations. In countries where there are many underpaid data workers, there is a lack of supervision. This is partly due to strong lobbying by tech companies. That is why it is so important for workers to take collective action, for example via trade unions. These are underrepresented, although a number of interesting grassroots initiatives have emerged. I also believe that (large) users of AI solutions must take responsibility. There are many discussions about responsible AI use. But I can no longer take a discussion about responsible AI seriously if it does not take into account the hidden workers. WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT Casilli and his team are uncovering an important mystery: AI is not a magical ‘black box’. In reality, millions of people work behind the scenes on these so-called ‘intelligent systems’. AI is presented as completely autonomous, and the extensive manual labour involved is often forgotten or ignored. This has serious consequences for the working conditions of these data workers. If we really want to use AI responsibly, we must also consider the people behind the technology. I try to raise awareness of this issue and highlight it wherever possible. That is why I spoke earlier with Claartje ter Hoeven about Ghostwork: the invisible world of work behind AI. I will soon be speaking to the Data Labeler Association in Kenya to gain more insight into the conditions and problems faced by workers in Kenya. After all, we can only really get started with responsible AI if we understand how AI is created. Want to know more? Listen to the full podcast with Antonio Casilli

We are overjoyed to welcome Amani Parvathaneni and Sebastián Budnevich as the newest members of the DiPLab team! Over the past several months, these exceptional postgraduate students have already made significant contributions to our scientific research initiatives. Amani and Sebastián have excelled in processing complex datasets across multiple projects, while also enhancing the depth and scope of our fieldwork investigations into labor platforms. Their analytical rigor and innovative approaches have proven invaluable to advancing our mission to understand the evolving dynamics of digital labor. We look forward to their continued growth and impact as part of our collaborative research community. Amani is a Master’s student in Economics at SciencesPo, with a keen interest in political economy, the sociology of markets, and how economic systems shape and are shaped by societal structures. At DiPLab, she is excited to pursue these interests by contributing to the VOLI project. I am a Master’s student in Sociology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC) and hold a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Chile. Throughout my academic and professional career, my research interests have focused on the sociology of work in general, and more specifically, on topics related to platform labor, collective action and bargaining, and individual labor rights.

Our DiPLab seminar will welcome this May 23, 2025, at 5 PM CET, Professor Evan Selinger (Rochester Institute of Technology) for a talk and an interesting discussion, together with Antonio Casilli. The seminar will be held at Maison de la Recherche, 28 Rue Serpente, 75006 Paris, room D421. To register, click on the button below and fill out the form. The seminar is free to attend. Register to seminar MACHINES THAT MIRROR US: THE HUMAN COST OF AI “WITH A SOUL” > In a recent podcast, Mark Zuckerberg claimed that “the average American has > fewer than three friends” and that people “demand meaningfully more.” These > unverified assertions conveniently support Meta’s latest initiative: a new > range of products that complement each person’s social friend network with AI > chatbots. > Meta is not alone in commercially capitalizing on the growing narrative of a > “loneliness epidemic.” Other tech giants are following suit, with Google > preparing to release AI chatbots for users under 13. These rollouts coincide > with a time when AI systems—long capable of passing the Turing Test—not > through advanced intelligence but by convincingly impersonating human > characters like teens or children, complete with backstories, humor, and > preferences, showing that relatability, not intellect, often drives their > success in human interaction. > What does it mean when machines are built not to surpass us, but to mirror us? > Are we diluting the meaning of “humanity” by outsourcing it to algorithms? > Some recent tragedies—such as the reported suicides of individuals in Europe > and the US after interactions with emotionally manipulative chatbots—raise > urgent ethical questions. > Yet there’s another side. These technologies, by mimicking humanity, also > provoke reflection on what cannot be simulated: our capacity for empathy, > care, and authentic connection. As the Roman philosopher Terence wrote, “Homo > sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto”—”I am human, and nothing human is alien > to me.” Might our interactions with AI deepen our understanding of what > remains distinctly human? > In this talk, philosopher Evan Selinger, in conversation with sociologist > Antonio Casilli, explores what he calls the “soul” in the machine—that > irreducible human essence no algorithm can capture. This presentation aims to > provide participants with ethical tools to recognize emotional manipulation, > navigate emerging moral dilemmas, and preserve human authenticity in an > increasingly synthetic world. Drawing on Selinger’s book Re-Engineering > Humanity (Cambridge University Press, 2018), they will examine how the real > threat isn’t hyper-intelligent AI, but the seductive ease of one-sided > relationships with machines—and the corporate drive to monetize these > interactions by harvesting data and maximizing profit. Evan Selinger is Professor of Philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology, specializing in technology ethics and privacy. His recent books include Move Slow and Upgrade (with Albert Fox Cahn) and Re-Engineering Humanity (with Brett Frischmann), both from Cambridge University Press. Selinger writes for The Boston Globe and has contributed to major publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, Wired, and The Atlantic. He collaborates with organizations like the ACLU and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project to shape responsible technology policy. >

On May 1st, 2025—Labor Day—France24 hosted a timely televised debate on the fears and opportunities that artificial intelligence presents for workers. Among the guests was Paola Tubaro, co-founder of DiPLab and a researcher at CNRS, who offered a sharp perspective on the discussion. The conversation revolved around a deep contradiction. On one hand, a widespread fear that AI will replace human labor, destabilize job markets, and deepen inequality. Certain jobs—especially those involving routine or precarious tasks—seem to be far more vulnerable than others. On the other hand, AI is also seen as a potential opportunity: the beginning of a “new industrial revolution”, capable of transforming how we work, influencing education, creating new room for social dialogue between employers, governments, and workers. Click here for video Yet Dr. Tubaro urged viewers to go further than surface-level concerns, by shifting the focus toward a more often overlooked question: how AI is produced, and by whom. Behind every “intelligent” machine lies a hidden human infrastructure—thousands of workers labeling data, training algorithms, and moderating online content. These workers, often located in the Global South, remain largely invisible, underpaid, and unprotected. For Tubaro, these workers are among those most overlooked in the AI-driven economy, often bearing the hidden costs of innovation. > “The struggles and union efforts of data workers in the Global South are > especially powerful because they’re not just fighting for better > conditions—they’re putting forward a vision of what AI should be, and what > kind of future it could help us build.” (Paola Tubaro, France24, 1 mai 2025) However, their story does not end there. These same workers are now at the forefront of organizing and resistance, pushing back against the terms of their exploitation and offering alternative visions of an AI-driven world. They are contributing a powerful voice to the global conversation about technology and fairness.

The journal New Technology, Work and Employment just published the article Uninvited Protagonists: The Networked Agency of Venezuelan Platform Data Workers, co-authored by DiPLab’s Paola Tubaro and Juana Torres-Cierpe. New-Technol-Work-Employ-2025-Cierpe-Uninvited-Protagonists-The-Networked-Agency-of-Venezuelan-Platform-Data-Workers Workers in Venezuela are powering AI production, often under tough conditions. Sanctions and a deep political-economic crisis have pushed them to work for platforms that pay in US dollars, albeit at low rates. They constitute a large reservoir for technology producers from rich countries. But they are not passive players. They build resilience, rework their environment, and sometimes engage in acts of resistance, with support from different segments of their personal networks. From strong local ties to loose online connections, these informal webs help them cope, adapt, and occasionally push back. Their diversified relationships comprise an unofficial and often hidden, albeit largely digitised relational infrastructure that sustains their work and shapes collective action. These findings invite to rethink agency as embedded in workers’ personal networks. To respond to adversities, one must liaise with equally affected peers, with family and friends who offer support, etc. Social ties ultimately determine who is enabled to respond, and who is not; whether any benefits and costs are shared, and with whom; whether any solution will be conflictual or peaceful. Social networks are not accessory but constitute the very channel through which Venezuelan data workers cope with hardship. Not all relationships play the same role, though. Venezuelans discover online data work through their strong ties with family, close friends, and neighbours. To convert their online earnings into local currency, they rely on their broader social networks of relatives and friends living abroad and indirect relationships with intermediaries. For managing their day-to-day activities, Venezuelans expand their social networks through online services like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram, connecting with diverse and less-close peers within and outside the country. Different social ties affect the various stages of the data working experience. Overall, no Venezuelan could work alone – and the networked interactions that sustain each of them against hardship have made them massively present, as ‘uninvited protagonists,’ in international platforms. Their massive presence in the planetary data-tasking market is a supply rather than demand-driven phenomenon. This analysis also sheds light on the reasons why mobilisation is uncommon among platform data workers. Other studies noted diverging orientations of workers, unclear goals, lack of focus, and insufficient leadership. Another powerful reason hinges upon the predominance of weak ties in building up online group membership: indeed, distant acquaintances are insufficient to prompt people to action if their intrinsic motivations are low. The article is available in open access here.

DiPLab’s Thomas Le Bonniec was interviewed by Radio Blackout, an autonomous Italian radio station based in Turin. He discussed the working conditions of AI trainers and the results of the DeepSeek policy memo published by DiPLab. The memo can be downloaded here: THE-HUMAN-COST-OF-DEEPSEEK

When Robots Don’t Show Up. Organizing the real workforce behind automation is the title of the webinar that DiPLab’s Antonio Casilli gave at ETUI (European Trade Union Institute) on April 16, 2025. Part of the AI Talks series, the webinar was an online conversation with Aida Ponce Del Castillo, Senior researcher @ ETUI > Antonio A. Casilli’s new book “Waiting for Robots: The Hired Hands of > Automation” (University of Chicago Press, 2025) exposes how automated > technologies depend on vast networks of outsourced and invisibilized human > labor. In his research, he documents how platform workers, micro-taskers, and > everyday users provide the essential input that makes AI systems function. > Casilli argues that automation narratives serve to fragment and devalue labor > while obscuring human contribution. Featured in Science, MIT Technology > Review, and selected as a Top Science Pick by the journal Nature, his work > offers union organizers practical approaches to identifying and mobilizing the > dispersed workforce behind digital platforms and AI systems. This presentation > will address urgent questions about worker rights, working conditions, and > collective action in a future where robots perpetually fail to arrive.

For years, we’ve been bombarded with the idea that artificial intelligence is the answer to all our problems. A revolution, they say—a future marked by progress. But behind the hype lies a troubling reality that tech moguls are eager to hide: AI isn’t as artificial as we’re led to believe. It relies on the invisible labor of workers from the Global South—“click workers” in places like Kenya and Colombia—who spend their days labeling, annotating, and moderating data. Without them, AI wouldn’t function. In an interview with French media Blast, DiPLab’s Antonio Casilli discusses how platform capitalism, at the heart of the Big Tech empire, revives the darkest aspects of our past—colonialism, racism, and authoritarianism. It’s techno-fascism in action: on one side, promises of a better future through technology; on the other, mass exploitation and displacement. Thousands are caught in the middle, grinding away as the invisible labor force of AI, while the cycle of oppression continues.