We are excited to share an important milestone in our research: the publication of a new article just published in a special issue of the journal Globalizations by DiPLab co-founder Paola Tubaro, introducing and developing the concept of the “dual footprint”: the idea that every digital process leaves both a data work imprint and a material, environmental one. The impacts of artificial intelligence on the natural and social surroundings that supply resources for its production and use have been studied separately so far. Tubaro employs the “dual footprint” as a heuristic device to capture the commonalities and interdependencies between them. She uses two in-depth case studies – international flows of raw materials and of data work services between Argentina and the United States on the one hand, and between Madagascar, France and East Asia on the other. They portray the AI industry as a value chain that spans national boundaries and perpetuates inherited global inequalities. The countries that drive AI development, mostly in the Global North, generate a massive demand for inputs and trigger social costs that, through the value chain, largely fall on more peripheral actors. The arrangements in place distribute the costs and benefits of AI unequally, resulting in unsustainable practices and preventing the upward mobility of more disadvantaged countries. If you want to cite this article: > Tubaro, P. (2025). The dual footprint of artificial intelligence: > environmental and social impacts across the globe. Globalizations, 1–18. > https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2025.2589571 You can access the preprint version here: DualFootprint_12072025Download The dual footprint grasps how the environmental and social dimensions of AI production emanate from similar underlying socio-economic processes and geographical trajectories. This framework helps us better understand the true costs of digitalization and the global inequalities it reproduces. It also constitutes the foundation of SEED – Social and Environmental Effects of Data Connectivity, a new project that investigates how data extraction and material extraction are deeply interconnected. It stems from a collaboration with the Núcleo Milenio FAIR at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and compares data and material infrastructures between Europe and South America.

RTS, Switzerland’s national television channel, broadcast a report on data annotation platforms between Europe and Africa. As part of the program “A Bon Entendeur,” journalist Linda Bourget interviewed Antonio Casilli, professor at the Institut Polytechnique de Paris and co-director of DiPLab. > ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude: generative artificial intelligence is all around us. > But the power of this technology relies heavily on humans. Behind these tools > are millions of workers who are never talked about. Who are they? What do they > do? Why are they invisible? A report from Geneva to Nairobi. > > All these tasks outsourced abroad help improve the artificial intelligence we > use here. But you may have noticed that some of the answers provided by tools > such as ChatGPT and others are very local. To achieve this result, annotators > are also recruited in Switzerland. Another face of the precariousness of AI > workers.

Our DiPLab seminar is delighted to welcome on November 21, 2025, at 3:00 PM CET our friend and collaborator Dr. Martín Tironi, of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.. The seminar will be held in person at the Shaker Space of the ISC-PIF (Institut des Systèmes Complexes – Paris Île de France), 113 rue Nationale, 75013 Paris. To register, click on the button below and fill out the form. The seminar is free to attend. Register here GROUNDING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN ITS PLANETARY CONDITIONS: AN EXPLORATION AND INTERVENTION ON RARE EARTHS IN CHILE In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as one of the main socio-technical solutions for tackling the global climate crisis. It is credited with the ability to mitigate its effects through tools for reducing emissions, predictive modeling, and environmental monitoring. However, its expansion is based on a narrative that perpetuates the illusion of an immaterial and deterritorialized technology, capable of emancipating us from the physical world on which it nevertheless depends. This presentation outlines a research-creation program aimed at considering the terrestrial condition of AI, i.e., its material, ecological, and geopolitical anchors. Based on the controversy surrounding rare earth extraction in southern Chile, which places the town of Penco on the map of global extractive tensions, analytical and curatorial operations are explored with the aim of “grounding” AI in its geological, social, and political conditions. Drawing on the notion of “excess” developed by Marisol de la Cadena, the aim is to highlight the need to pay attention to what goes beyond modern classification frameworks. In the intertwining of geological times, mining projects, transformed ecologies, and affected communities, controversies emerge that connect local landscapes to global debates around critical minerals for the digital transition. Martín Tironi is an associate professor and former director of the School of Design at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, as well as director of the Núcleo Milenio Futures of Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR). A sociologist trained at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, he holds a master’s degree from Paris Descartes University (Sorbonne V) and a doctorate from the Centre for Sociology of Innovation at the École des Mines de Paris. In 2018, he was a visiting professor at the Centre for Invention and Social Process at Goldsmiths, University of London. He currently leads the Fondecyt project “Digital Technologies for Climate Change” (2024–2028) and is principal investigator of the SEED project (Social and Environmental Effects of Data Connectivity, Chile–France, ECOS-ANID), which examines the hybrid ecologies associated with submarine cables and data centers, essential infrastructures for satellite data processing. His work lies at the intersection of design, technology, and ecology, exploring the links between artificial intelligence, digital materialities, and the planetary limits of innovation. He was part of the team that won the Gold Medal at the London Design Biennale 2023 with the Tectonic Resonance project, and is currently presenting, with Manuela Garretón, the installation Hybrid Ecologies: The Planetary Metabolism of AI at the Venice Biennale 2025.

Introducing a new special issue on legal perspectives on artificial intelligence in the French journal Revue de Droit du Travail (Labor Law Review) (Claire Marzo and DiPLab’s Antonio Casilli wrote the extensive introduction—see the end of this post for the preprint version). As part of the special issue, by Dr. Baptiste Delmas, associate professor of law at Paris 1-Panthéon Sorbonne University and co-principal investigator of the DiPLab/IAA project AI WORLd authored a landmark article examining the importance of due diligence laws in ensuring respect of data workers’ fundamental rights. Delmas_-_IA_et_devoir_de_vigilanceDownload Baptiste Delmas (2025). [AI and Due Diligence] Devoir de vigilance et IA. Revue de Droit du Travail, 10, pp. 600-616. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21ST CENTURY LABORERS Regardless of whether these workers are recruited by digital labor platforms as self-employed workers or access proprietary platforms via subcontractors located around the world, most often in countries where social protections are weaker than elsewhere, the risks of infringing on freedom of association, decent pay, prohibitions on forced or child labour, the right to a healthy and safe working environment, and even respect for personal data are high. Over the last few years, the press have built upon existing scholarship to report on the difficult working conditions experienced by these 21st-century laborers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHO SHOULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE? This due diligence is an important response to the issue—as well as to identify liabilities. This needs to be addressed seriously. By requiring clients of AI solutions, parent companies, and main contractors to publish an annual due diligence plan containing a detailed risk map, sector by sector and country by country, within their subsidiaries and also among subcontractors and suppliers with whom they have established commercial relationships, this duty can effectively enable a prevention policy by preventing or minimizing these risks. Currently, the French law of 27 March 2017 is the only one in force in a European country that has such a broad scope and has already been implemented. A European directive has been adopted in 2024, but it is currently being challenged by the European Commission on a number of grounds. As part of the due diligence process, the largest French companies that directly provide data preparation services for AI vendors and clients – such as Teleperformance and Capgemini – or that purchase data preparation directly or indirectly by purchasing artificial intelligence services that they intend to deploy need to be concerned about the working conditions of these data workers. As of today, only a handful of companies in the AI sector approach this due diligence with genuine rigor — a point that trade unions and workers’ organisations, both within and beyond France, could usefully remind them of. Read the introduction to the special issue here: Marzo Casilli 2025 RDTDownload Claire Marzo & Antonio A. Casilli (2025). [Regulating AI Hidden Labor] Réguler le travail caché de l’intelligence artificielle. Revue de droit du travail, 2025, 09, pp.520-529.

DiPLab continues its collaboration with Valori.it, the Italian editorial hub specializing in ethical finance and sustainable economy issues. After Antonio Casilli’s Interview with the Oblò podcast on the risks and fears associated with artificial intelligence, this month we spoke with Unchained about another facet of automation: cashierless stores. Behind the ‘smart’ shop windows and cameras that recognize products, there is in fact an invisible army of ‘data workers’ – often in India or countries where labor is cheap and union protections are weaker – who correct, label, and sometimes mimic the systems to make the experience seem completely automatic.

We are pleased to announce that on Thursday, October 30, 3:30 CET/2:30 GMT, Dr. Paola Tubaro (DiPLab, CNRS) will be speaking at the upcoming FairWork workshop, alongside Dr. Milagros Miceli (DiPLab associate researcher, DAIR, and Weizenbaum Institute) and Ephantus Kanyugi (INDL plenary speaker and DiPLab collaborator). Together, they will contribute to discussions on ongoing research and initiatives around online labour and workers’ rights. The event will bring together leading scholars, trade union representatives, and workers’ associations to explore the realities of online work—its challenges, working conditions, and regulatory perspectives. You are all invited to register here. Paola Tubaro Milagros Miceli Ephantus Kanyugi -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAIRWORK PROJECT “Online Workers’ Challenges, Working Conditions, and Regulation” October 30, 2:30 PM GMT Online workers (also called cloudworkers, crowdworkers, or microworkers) are a key part of the platform economy. Platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk, Upwork, Freelancer, and others gather millions of workers worldwide. A report recently estimated up to 435 million workers globally (Datta et al., 2023). Studies have highlighted how these workers face precarity, fierce competition (usually at an international level), underpayment and unpaid labour, poor working conditions, unfair management, and health and safety risks and harms. Since platforms impose a self-employment model, these workers are excluded from basic labour protection. Additionally, the nature of these platforms creates barriers for workers to organize. These issues pose extra obstacles for cloudworkers to fight for better conditions and to participate in regulatory discussions. This online workshop will gather world-leading researchers on this topic and confederations, trade unions, and associations to discuss the problems cloudworkers face and potential paths to improve their working conditions. It will also discuss paths to address those issues in regulatory debates (from the ILO convention to regional and national proposals). The workshop is organized by the Fairwork Cloudwork Project, based at the Oxford Internet Institute and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. The workshop will take place online on October 30 at 2:30 PM British Time. The language used will be English. Find the registration link here: https://wzb-eu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tIzk-95LTSinQEqRr_dJjQ Union representatives and workers’ leaders are welcome. Feel free to share this invitation with unions and workers’ associations that have initiatives aimed at these workers or are interested in the topic. Agenda 2:30 PM GMT (3:30 PM CET) – Opening Remarks – Jonas Valente 2:40 PM GMT (3:40 PM CET) – Findings from Researchers * Jonas Valente – Fairwork Project, Oxford Internet Institute * Milagros Miceli – Data Workers’ Inquiry, Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) and Weizenbaum Institute * Paola Tubaro – DiPlab, Centre national de la recherche scientifique 3:20 PM GMT (4:20 PM CET) – Reflections from Unions and Workers’ Associations * Monica Tepfer – International Trade Union Confederation Legal Officer * Hod Anyigba, Chief Economist, ITUC-Africa * Lucie Susova – European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) Adviser * Marcelo Di Stefano, Secretary of Trade Union Strengthening and Organization of the TUCA * Ephantus Kanyugi, Vice President of the Data Labelers Association 4:00 PM GMT (5:00 PM CET) – Q&A 4:25 PM GMT (5:25 PM CET) – Final Remarks

We are thrilled to announce a significant milestone for one of our own: Dr. Mathilde Abel has been appointed as an Associate Professor at Télécom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris! This fantastic achievement recognizes Dr. Abel’s cutting-edge work and commitment to understanding the complexities of digital capitalism and platform labor. During her time as a postdoc with DiPLab, Dr. Abel was a crucial member of our team, contributing significantly to the Voices from Online Labour (VOLI) project. Her work on VOLI focused on AI-related platform work in Latin America, offering vital insights into the evolving landscape of digital work in the Global South. Dr. Abel’s research expertise sits at the intersection of several critical fields: * Platform labor * Algorithmic governance * Cognitive asymmetries in digital capitalism Her methodological approach is unique and robust, combining qualitative fieldwork with computational methods and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyze worker-generated data. This blend of methods allows her to capture both the granular human experience and the large-scale patterns shaping digital work. CONGRATULATIONS, MATHILDE! Dr. Abel holds a PhD in Economics from Sorbonne Nouvelle University. Her new role as a faculty member at Télécom Paris not only marks an exciting personal career step but also solidifies the continued relationship between her research and the goals of DiPLab. We look forward to many future collaborations!

DiPLab co-director Antonio Casilli is featured in the culture pages of the Italian magazine L’Espresso, where he discusses the process that led to the release of his award-winning documentary In the Belly of AI, which he will present at the Festival del Pensare Contemporaneo in Piacenza, Italy on September 13, 2025. The 75-minute documentary, co-written with Julien Goetz and directed by Henri Poulain, exposes the hidden human costs behind artificial intelligence systems—from data centers consuming massive environmental resources to underpaid “data workers” in the Global South who process disturbing content to train algorithms, often developing psychological trauma in the process. Casilli’s appearance at this international philosophy festival, themed “Vite Svelate” (Unveiled Lives), aligns perfectly with his documentary’s mission to unveil the invisible labor powering AI systems. The film has earned critical recognition including the Outstanding Excellence at the Documentaries Without Borders festival the documentary has been shortlisting for the Melbourne documentary Film Festival. Find here the pdf version in Italian and the html version in English of Casilli’s article. EspressoDownload Last June, when Meta announced the appointment of Alexandr Wang to head its new artificial superintelligence program, the trade press hailed yet another enfant prodige of Silicon Valley. At only 28 years old, he has become one of the most influential faces in the race toward General Artificial Intelligence. A textbook American parable: brilliant MIT student, billion-dollar deals, rise to the top of the tech industry. Behind this glossy narrative, the reality is another: Wang is first and foremost a cofounder of Scale AI, and his entry into Meta coincided with the nearly $15 billion investment Zuckerberg’s behemoth made in his company. Founded only a few years ago, the startup that turned him into a star in the industry relies on a business that is anything but glamorous: employing millions of data workers who for paltry sums enter information, tag images, transcribe text, and filter sensitive content. These are the riders of artificial intelligence: precarious, underpaid jobs that fuel the technology of the future. While investors and the public are being dazzled by the rhetoric of superintelligence, behind the scenes is this industrial army that continues to work for Scale AI and hundreds of other such companies. The truth is that artificial intelligence, no matter how sophisticated it may appear, is still massively dependent on the most precarious human labor on the planet. An untold number of digital workers, estimated by the World Bank to be well over one hundred million globally. For years, the media have documented the working conditions of these “click proletarians.” In January 2023, two months after the launch of ChatGPT, a Time magazine investigation brought to light the existence of real digital sweatshops in Africa, where workers were paid as little as a dollar and a half an hour to “train” OpenAI’s artificial intelligence. Also supporting Time’s reporting was the research of academics like myself, who had been engaged in field investigations for years to document this reality. At that time I was already working with director Henri Poulain on what would later become our new documentary, In the Belly of Artificial Intelligence (In the Belly of AI, Federation Studios, 2025). My research activity has long been intertwined with the production of television investigations on the relationship between technology and work. This time we decided to shine a spotlight on a burgeoning phenomenon: the use, to make artificial intelligence work, of the most vulnerable people. From the victims of armed conflicts, to the millions of unemployed in the poorest continents, to low-income workers even in rich countries. These are not just companies like Scale AI, but international chains of exploitation in the digital economy. Uma Rani, an economist at the International Labor Organization in Geneva, explains this with disarming clarity during one of the first interviews in our documentary. Every time ChatGPT answers a question, a Tesla car avoids an obstacle, or Instagram recognizes a face in a photo, there is a stream of human labor running across the planet behind that automation. It’s not just code and algorithms: it’s sweat, toil and exploitation in countries where a few cents can make the difference between surviving and not making ends meet. But this interview was just the beginning. During months of filming we met dozens of people: inmates in Finnish prisons who for two euros a day train specialized intelligences, Ukrainian refugees reduced to tagging digital images to support their children, Indian migrants tagging images for a few cents an hour. But it was especially the slum workers in Nairobi, Kenya, who struck us the most. Not only because of the extremely exploitative conditions, but because of the devastating psychological consequences of their work. Many of them train the artificial intelligence of large multinational corporations not to generate illicit content: rape, torture, murder, abuse. This kind of activity, also called “moderation,” represents the darker side of artificial intelligence training. Even those who moderate content on Facebook are actually teaching automated systems to block violent or offensive photos and text. Those who perform these tasks often develop post-traumatic stress disorder after spending months viewing and cataloging gruesome content. In the face of these testimonies, we bumped into the wall of silence from Big Tech. What is the response of AI development companies in the face of all this? Virtually nothing. Apart from a few timid attempts to give themselves codes of ethics that have no legal standing, their main job seems to be to silence critical voices. The realization of In the Belly of Artificial Intelligence, more than in our other projects, has been a minefield: interviews with experts and witnesses canceled at the last minute, lack of approvals from institutions and government departments, intimidation by lawyers linked to large corporations and law enforcement. The most surreal episode happened in Nairobi, where we were interviewing some artificial intelligence trainers. While we were filming, a group of police officers raided the venue and pressured the crew to turn off the cameras. Kenya is in a particularly delicate position in dealing with tech giants. The country has become a crucial hub for these kinds of digital services, hosting untold numbers of data workers who work for global AI giants. This economic dependence makes the Kenyan government particularly receptive to pressure from multinational corporations. A few months after the police raid during our shooting, President William Ruto himself publicly intervened in lawsuits against companies that exploit workers at starvation wages. He announced an amendment to prevent future lawsuits against these companies: ‘We changed the law so no one can take you to court anymore.’” What we have realized during these years of work is that this army of data workers is not “invisible labor,” as it is often called. It is actively hidden by tech companies that use intimidation, legal hurdles and media manipulation to construct a storytelling that makes people like Alexander Wang the sole heroes of the digital revolution. But the real heroes are others. Ordinary people, without fame or recognition: the women and men who today are finally organizing in unions and associations to demand decent working conditions. It is they who, thanks in part to documentaries like ours, can now hope that their voices will finally be heard. Because behind every intelligent algorithm there is always human intelligence. And that intelligence deserves respect, dignity and justice.

DiPLab, as one of the co-organizers of INDL-8 (the 8th annual conference of the International Network on Digital Labor), has allocated 11 scholarships to support travel, accommodation, and meals of promising speakers. The theme of this year’s conference is “Contesting Digital Labor: Resistance, Counter-uses, and New Directions in Research”. The recipients represent a global cohort of emerging scholars whose research touches upon the social and economic impacts of digital labor worldwide. The studies they will be presenting at INDL-8 span diverse topics and geographic contexts—from AI work in Romania, to gig work in India and Brazil, to freelance work in Argentina. They will be addressing critical issues like algorithmic management, gender dynamics, and health impacts. Here is the final list of our recipients: * Gonzague Isirabahenda (Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai [Cluj-Napoca], Romania) for the paper Reconsidering the implementation of Artificial intelligence in call centre jobs: Ethnographic study * Mariana Fernández Massi (CONICET, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas [Buenos Aires], Argentina) for the paper Algorithmic management and labour control on freelance platforms (in collaboration with Julieta Longo)   * James Oyange (African Content Moderators Union [Nairobi], Kenya), for the paper Empowering AI’s Invisible Workforce: Advancing Transparency and Data Protection for Data Workers. * Ethan Chiu (Yale University [New Haven], USA), for the paper The Human Circuit: A Comparative Study of the Semiconductor Industry’s Labor Conditions in the US and Taiwan * Debarun Narayan Dutta (Hertie School of Governance [Berlin], Germany) for the paper Orchestrating Mobility – How Immigration Agencies, Universities, and Platform Companies Construct the Migration and Labor Pathways of Indian Food Delivery Workers in Berlin * Dipsita Dhar (Centre for Studies of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University [New Delhi], India), for the paper From Riders to Influencers: The “Gigfluencer” Phenomenon in Ridesourcing DLPs (in collaboration with Ashique Ali Thuppilikkat) * Neha Gupta (Tata Institute of Social Sciences [Mumbai], India), for the paper Motherhood at the margins: ASHAs and the digital labour of antenatal care work * Søren Bøgh Sørensen (Copenhagen Business School [Copenhagen], Denmark), for the paper The Humans Behind the Filter: Uncovering the Costs and Consequences of Content Moderators in Kenya (in collaboration with Ephantus Kanyugi) * Amanda Biazzi (Universidade Estadual de Maringá [Maringá], Brazil), for the paper Technostress and the Health Related Risks on Content Production of Self-Employed Professionals: A Study with Brazilian Psychologists * Kanikka Sersia (Graduate Institute of International and Development studies [Geneva], Switzerland), for her paper Algorithms and the politics of production in the platform economy * Subhashri Sarkar (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research [Mohali], India), for the paper Precarity in Motion: Gendered Experiences in India’s Ride-Hailing Platform Work Please join us at the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna (Aula Magna, Santa Cristina venue), on September 10, 9am to meet our recipients at the scholarship ceremony during the opening session of the INDL-8 conference.

Has artificial intelligence truly outgrown its “Global South data sweatshop” phase? The recent deluge of “AI tutor” job advertisements on LinkedIn targeting highly qualified candidates with advanced degrees might suggest so. When Sam Altman claims his chatbot is “PhD-level smart,” one might assume this reflects a genuine shift toward elite expertise in AI training. However, groundbreaking investigative reporting published by Africa Uncensored reveals a more troubling reality: these recruitment campaigns represent elaborate investor-facing theatrics rather than meaningful industry evolution. DiPLab applauds the exceptional work of data journalists and Pulitzer Center Artificial Intelligence Accountability fellows Kathryn Cleary and Marché Arends, whose year-long investigation exposed a curious case study in modern AI labor practices. Their research focused on companies like Mindrift and Scale AI’s Outlier, which have been flooding professional networks with advertisements for highly qualified and relatively well-compensated “AI tutors” and “trainers,” primarily targeting workers in high-income countries across North America and Europe. These positions appeared to target elite specialists rather than the typical pool of low-paid data annotators traditionally associated with AI training. The recruitment campaigns seems to suggest that major tech companies, in their aggressive push toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), are now seeking only the most brilliant minds to train sophisticated chain-of-thought models. The Africa Uncensored investigation reveals a starkly different reality. Once recruited, these qualified workers—many holding advanced degrees in physics, philology, and other specialized fields—were left idle for months, barely managing to earn double-digit wages. They were essentially serving as props in an elaborate performance of AI progress, carefully staged to impress investors and signal scalability to potential big tech clients. Meanwhile, on platforms targeting workers in the Global South, such as Mindrift’s sister platform Toloka, recruitment for poorly paid microtasks continued under largely exploitative conditions. This parallel system reveals the persistent nature of what researchers have termed “digital sweatshops.” For DiPLab and its research community, these findings represent “old wine in new bottles.” For nearly a decade, DiPLab researchers have been encountering and interviewing data workers who hold Master’s and Doctoral degrees—experts in their own right across diverse disciplines. Many of these highly qualified individuals remain unemployed due to dysfunction in traditional job markets, or find themselves forced to accept data work that neither matches their specialization nor provides adequate compensation. According to DiPLab co-founder Antonio Casilli, interviewed along prof. Edemilson Paranà and dr. Adio Dinika, in the exposé: “This is the biggest waste of social capital in human history. These people would be, should be, destined to the best jobs because they are probably the best and the brightest of their generation.” The mass recruitment strategy serves a specific economic function within what researchers call “labor hedging”—a tactic where companies amass large pools of workers primarily to signal scalability and attract major contracts. As the investigation revealed, Mindrift alone posted over 5,770 job listings across 62 countries in just four months, yet provided minimal actual work opportunities. This approach allows platforms to maintain what they euphemistically term “talent pools”—readily available workforces that can be presented to potential clients as evidence of operational capacity. When a major tech company inquires about access to specialized expertise, these platforms can point to their extensive databases of pre-vetted candidates as proof of their ability to deliver at scale. DiPLab’s research situates these practices within the broader context of platform capitalism surrounding AI development. The current AI boom and the associated recruitment theater serve as crucial signals in this speculative environment. As Casilli noted, “Investors are on LinkedIn too, they see this [mass recruitment], it is a signal for them. This looks more like a communications operation.” These platforms understand that LinkedIn functions not merely as a talent acquisition tool, but as a visibility platform for investor audiences. The courageous reporting by Cleary and Arends, supported by Africa Uncensored, an outlet willing to publish investigations that major US and European media often avoid, highlights the critical need for continued scrutiny of AI labor practices. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As one of the main organizers behind the 8th annual conference of the International Network on Digital Labor (INDL-8), DiPLab is proud to announce that our comprehensive program is now online, setting the stage for September 10-12, 2025, when Bologna will host one of the largest gatherings in digital labor research. his milestone event brings together a global network of researchers, practitioners, and activists to bridge the critical gap between academic investigation and the lived realities of workers’ struggles worldwide. Through our collaborative partnership with the University of Bologna, Fondazione Di Vittorio, and the International Labor Organization (ILO), we have crafted a program that reflects our commitment to understanding digital work not as an abstract phenomenon but as a concrete set of practices that reshape lives, communities, and economies across the globe. This year’s theme, “Contesting Digital Labor: Resistance, counter-uses, and new directions for research,” emerges directly from DiPLab’s core mission to promote social change by illuminating the material conditions of the production of AI technologies. In particular, documenting how workers navigate, resist, and reimagine the digital economy’s constraints and opportunities has become a central issue. We have managed to accommodate nearly 200 oral presentations and posters, drawing speakers from six continents who will engage in discussions that stretch across disciplines and countries, creating the kind of interdisciplinary dialogue that has always been central to DiPLab’s approach. INDL-8 features keynote speaker Sarah T. Roberts (UCLA), who will examine “The Hydra of Artificial Intelligence: Labor Devaluation and Erosion of Human Agency,” drawing on her research as author of “Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media” and director of UCLA’s Center for Critical Internet Inquiry. María Luz Rodríguez Fernández (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha) will present “Property rights and monetisation of the personal data of platform workers,” based on her work as former ILO Senior Specialist and author of over 200 publications on platform economy labor law. Sandro Mezzadra (University of Bologna) will deliver his talk “Beyond resistance. Digital Labor, Social Cooperation and Infrastructural Struggles,” contributing his expertise in political theory and contemporary capitalism analysis. The program also features a groundbreaking one-day event with a panel featuring AI data workers. The venue is actually the most original aspect, as the panel will take place inside an actual data center—the Tecnopolo DAMA. This represents an unprecedented opportunity to hear the firsthand accounts of the material conditions and human experiences behing AI, that our research seeks to understand and improve. Moreover, it will be a great opportunity to foster solidarity by establish a dialogue between European, South American, and African new and “legacy” union leaders and community organizers. The conference’s special union panel includes Joan Kinyua, President of the Data Labelers Association; Felipe Corredor Álvarez, co-founder of Riders x Derechos and former Deliveroo rider with a PhD in Social Psychology; and Kauna Malgwi, co-founder of the Africa Content Moderators Union, who was named among Time’s 100 most influential people in AI for 2024 and testified before the European Parliament on digital platform work conditions. Beyond traditional academic sessions, we have secured some of the University of Bologna’s most historic venues, situating our contemporary concerns within centuries of scholarly tradition, while our dedicated evening tour will explore Bologna through the lens of its activist movements, connecting past struggles with present-day digital labor organizing.