We are pleased to announce that DiPLab’s co-director, Professor Antonio Casilli, contributed expert testimony to the International High-Level Expert Committee on Democracy at Work for the Spanish Government, whose final report will be publicly released tomorrow, Monday, February 2, 2026, at 11am CET in Madrid. ABOUT THE REPORT Established by the Ministry of Labour of the Government of Spain, the Expert Committee on Democracy at Work brought together international experts to examine critical challenges facing workers in the contemporary economy. The Committee’s comprehensive report represents months of research, deliberation, and expert testimony from leading scholars and practitioners worldwide. Professor Casilli’s testimony, delivered at online hearings in May 2025, focused on “The Crisis of Informality and the Global Value Chain,” bringing DiPLab’s groundbreaking research on data work and AI labor into this crucial policy conversation. In his testimony, Professor Casilli presented findings from DiPLab’s extensive research programme on Digital Platform Labor, highlighting a frequently overlooked dimension of algorithmic management: the externalized, largely invisible labor that powers artificial intelligence development. Professor Casilli’s complete testimony to the Committee is available below: Hearing_Casilli_Democracy_Work_Spain_May_2025Download The presentation examined data work as an essential but systematically undervalued component of AI production systems. Drawing on DiPLab’s field research across multiple continents—including French- and English-speaking countries in Africa (Madagascar, Kenya, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, Egypt), Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America (Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina), and South and Southeast Asia (India, Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, China)—Professor Casilli documented stark disparities in compensation and working conditions. As Professor Casilli emphasized, while AI appears to be “produced” in the Global North where major technology companies maintain their headquarters, this masks a complex reality: data production remains concentrated in the Global South, with labor flowing through established patterns that reflect linguistic, colonial, and economic connections. REPORT RELEASE When: Monday, February 2, 2026, at 11:00 AM CET Where: Ministry of Labour, Madrid (live-streamed) Live stream: https://www.youtube.com/live/frTjUx2TOb8 The complete report will be published in both English and Spanish at noon CET on the dedicated website: * English: https://reportondemocracyatwork.org/en/home/ * Spanish: https://reportondemocracyatwork.org/es/home/

Antonio Casilli, professor and researcher at DiPLab, appeared in a recent episode of Le Iene, Italy’s well-known investigative television program, as part of an in-depth report on the working conditions of people who train artificial intelligence systems in Nairobi, Kenya. No Caption No Caption No Caption No Caption The report focuses on the human infrastructure behind AI technologies: men and women who label data, moderate content, and refine algorithms, often working for major multinational companies under precarious conditions. Casilli contributed his analysis to help contextualize this hidden economy and explain the structural dynamics that shape it. A significant part of the investigation takes place in Nairobi, Kenya, where many of these tasks are outsourced. The report documents how local workers are employed to train algorithms for low pay, performing repetitive and psychologically demanding work that makes AI systems appear more “intelligent.” Through on-the-ground reporting and interviews, journalist Nicola Barraco examines the economic and human costs embedded in today’s AI supply chains. Casilli’s intervention situates these testimonies within a broader critique of the global AI industry. The segment underscores a central question: as artificial intelligence becomes more powerful and profitable, who bears the real cost of its development? By bringing visibility to this hidden labor, Le Iene contributes to a growing international debate on ethics, accountability, and working conditions in the AI economy.

DiPLab is proud to announce the publication of our latest research report: Data Work in Egypt: Who Are the Workers Behind Artificial Intelligence? This new study, led by Dr. Myriam Raymond with Lucy Neveux, Prof. Antonio A. Casilli, and Dr. Paola Tubaro, provides the first comprehensive examination of Egyptian data workers training AI systems for tech giants worldwide. How to cite this report: > Myriam Raymond, Lucy Neveux, Antonio A. Casilli, Paola Tubaro (2025). “Data > Work in Egypt. Who are the Workers Behind Artificial Intelligence”. DiPLab > Report. <https://hal.science/hal-05417930> > > Tweet Rapport DiPLab Egypte-DefcDownload KEY FINDINGS AT A GLANCE Our survey of over 600 Egyptian platform workers reveals a troubling reality: * Three-quarters depend on platform income to pay their bills * Average monthly earnings: $58.76 (less than half Egypt’s minimum wage of $147) * Hourly rate: $1.22 (compared to global average of $4.43 in 2018) * 76% identify as men, 74% are between 18-34 years old * 60% hold bachelor’s degrees in science or technical fields * 83% work on platforms out of financial necessity Both male and female data workers tend to be younger than the general Egyptian workforce A WORKFORCE IN CRISIS While Silicon Valley celebrates AI breakthroughs, our research exposes the human cost behind these innovations. Egyptian workers perform essential tasks—labeling images, transcribing audio, evaluating content, annotating data—that train machine learning models used globally. Yet they earn poverty wages for skilled work requiring technical knowledge and multilingual literacy. “We were struck by the contradiction,” says lead researcher Dr. Myriam Raymond. “These are highly educated individuals—60% hold bachelor’s degrees in science or technical fields—yet they’re earning $1.22 per hour on average, working for global tech companies that profit enormously from their labor.” Our data reveals severe income volatility. Rather than providing stable supplemental income, platform work traps Egyptian workers in a cycle of precarity: Most workers experience volatile or extremely volatile income, with earnings fluctuating dramatically month to month When we asked how workers used their last month’s platform earnings, the results were stark: the overwhelming majority spent their income immediately on rent, food, and clothes. Only a tiny fraction had the financial security to use earnings for hobbies or savings. Platform work serves as a lifeline rather than a source of financial flexibility CONDITIONS WORSE THAN SEVEN YEARS AGO Comparing our findings with the International Labor Organization’s 2018 global study reveals a disturbing trend: conditions for data workers have deteriorated significantly. * Increased education requirements: 70% now hold bachelor’s degrees vs. 57% globally in 2018 * Hourly rates dropped 72%: from $4.43 (2018 global average) to $1.22 (Egypt 2025) * Workforce demographic shift: from married adults with children to precarious single young people OUR RECOMMENDATIONS DiPLab’s report concludes with actionable policy recommendations: For Governments: * Improve measurement of data work in official statistics * Promote financial inclusion for platform workers * Simplify activity registration to encourage formalization * Ensure social security coverage For Platforms: * Implement transparent payment systems with minimum wage requirements * Disclose task allocation criteria clearly * Establish fair conflict resolution mechanisms * Provide dedicated worker support

Italy’s national broadcaster Rai 1 has shined a light on a crucial but often overlooked aspect of artificial intelligence in their program “Codice.” Their recent report reveals the essential truth: AI is built on real human work. As you might expect, this report bears the fingerprints of our team at DiPLab Rai 1, with DiPLab’s co-founder Antonio Casilli being interviewed among the experts of AI supply chains.

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.