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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

At the WORK2025 conference in Turku, Finland, DiPLab co-founders Antonio Casilli and Paola Tubaro presented the results of their ongoing research documenting the human labor networks that power artificial intelligence systems worldwide. Casilli’s keynote (video 00:29-1:36:00), “Where does AI come from? Global circulation of data and human labor behind automation,” emphasized that AI systems are fundamentally built upon hidden human labor—specifically digital annotation, verification, transcription, moderation, and impersonation of data. This labor is fragmented, precarious, and carried out through digital platforms, predominantly by workers in the Global South who remain unrecognized in dominant AI discourses. Casilli presentation starts with an excerpts from the documentary In the Belly of AI (co-written with Julien Goetz and directed by Henri Poulain), describing the working conditions of women annotating data and producing AI from Finnish prisons for 3 euros per day. In the rest of his keynote speech, drawing from the decade-long research of the DiPLab program, Casilli explored how data work is organized across Africa, Asia, Latin America, as well as Europe and North America, revealing models that support different types of data tasks while reinforcing enduring inequalities in wages, job security, and working conditions that particularly affect Global South workers. He highlighted the increasingly convoluted nature of these supply chains involving several intermediaries—from global tech firms to local freelancers—spanning continents, making it extremely challenging to trace accountability and working conditions. Tubaro’s presentation, “Women in the loop: the gendered contribution of data workers to AI,” examined who actually performs this crucial but undervalued work, focusing on women’s participation as the market has expanded. While data work appears theoretically well-suited for women since it can be performed remotely from home and platforms generally limit direct gender discrimination, statistical evidence reveals mixed patterns with women exceeding 50% of data workers in only four documented cases. Her research showed that in crisis-stricken countries like Venezuela, international platforms attract highly qualified workers in fierce competition, often dominated by young men with STEM backgrounds who crowd out women constrained by care responsibilities or fewer technical qualifications. Conversely, in more dynamic economies like Brazil, local job markets absorb highly skilled professionals, leaving platform work to more disadvantaged groups where women with family duties become more visible. This creates a paradox where women may be equally educated but lack time to cultivate advanced STEM skills, and as platforms demand longer, more specialized tasks, men increasingly gain advantages even in countries where women were once the majority. Both presentations converged on a critical insight: platform design treats workers as abstract entities, stripped of socio-economic and cultural contexts that shape real inequalities, while competition combined with local conditions deepens gender and regional disparities. sq

DiPLab researchers Paola Tubaro and Antonio Casilli recently completed a research mission to Santiago, Chile, participating in key academic events that advanced understanding of artificial intelligence’s social and environmental dimensions. Tubaro delivered a keynote address at the 4th annual workshop of the Millennium Nucleus on the Evolution of Work (M-NEW), where she serves as a senior international member. The interdisciplinary workshop convened labor scholars from across Latin America and internationally to examine contemporary work transformations. Her presentation drew on DiPLab’s multi-year research program investigating the invisible human labor underlying global AI production. Tubaro’s analysis traced the evolution of this work form over two decades, demonstrating that while core functions in smart system development have remained consistent, the scope and volume of these tasks have expanded significantly. Tubaro and Casilli also participated in the inaugural meeting of SEED (“Social and Environmental Effects of Data connectivity: Hybrid ecologies of transoceanic cables and data centers in Chile and France”), a new collaborative research project between DiPLab and the Millennium Nucleus FAIR (“Futures of Artificial Intelligence Research”). The project has received joint funding from the ECOS-SUD programme (France) and ANID (Chile) to analyze the complete AI value chain, examining production, development, employment impacts, usage patterns, and environmental consequences through comparative study of the Valparaíso-Santiago de Chile and Marseille-Paris corridors. In their SEED presentations, Tubaro and Casilli introduced the concept of the “dual footprint” as an analytical framework for understanding the interconnected environmental and social impacts of AI systems. This heuristic device captures commonalities and interdependencies between AI’s effects on natural and social environments that provide resources for its production and deployment. DiPLab researchers framed the AI industry as a transnational value chain that perpetuates existing global inequalities. Countries driving AI development generate substantial demand for inputs while externalizing social costs through the value chain to more peripheral actors. These arrangements distribute AI’s costs and benefits unequally, resulting in unsustainable practices and limiting upward mobility for disadvantaged countries. The dual footprint framework demonstrates how environmental and social dimensions of AI emerge from similar structural dynamics, providing a unified approach to understanding AI’s comprehensive impact on global resource systems.

A recent AlgorithmWatch investigation featuring DiPLab co-director Antonio Casilli and affiliate Milagros Miceli exposes the systematic exploitation of data workers powering the generative AI boom. Authored by journalists Michael Bird and Nathan Schepers, the article, published in English on AlgorithmWatch and in German in the newspaper Taz, is titled “The AI Revolution Comes With the Exploitation of Gig Workers”. The findings align perfectly with DiPLab’s ongoing research mission: revealing the hidden human labor that makes artificial intelligence possible. “This has been business as usual for those companies and platforms for a number of years,” Casilli explains in the investigation. “Since the beginning, they have been predicated on wage theft.” Meanwhile, Miceli, sociologist and computer scientist at the Weizenbaum Institute Berlin, argues that BPO companies strategically “give the impression that training is a form of qualification,” making unpaid work seem like a bonus rather than exploitation. The investigation reveals how AI companies like Scale AI and Outlier rely on vast networks of precarious workers who face unpaid training time, wage theft, and systematically violated labor standards. “Unpaid time that is attached to this type of work is a form of exploitation,” Miceli adds, noting how workers often don’t even recognize wage theft because it’s become so normalized in the gig economy. The AlgorithmWatch investigation proves that DiPLab’s research agenda remains urgently relevant. The AI revolution is here—but it’s built on the backs of workers whose stories deserve to be told and whose rights deserve protection.

It has been a particularly productive semester for DiPLab researchers and affiliates in terms of publishing articles and book chapters. Here are the complete citations (and open access links) of our recent contributions that compare data work in various countries. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Special issue of New Political Economy guest-edited by Uma Rani Amara and Nicolas Pons-Vignon on “Power relations in the digital economy” has been published as Volume 30, issue 3 of the journal. It includes our article on “Where does AI come from?”, a comparison of data work in Venezuela, Madagascar, and France. > Tubaro, Paola, Antonio A. Casilli, Maxime Cornet, Clément Le Ludec, and Juana > Torres Cierpe. 2025. “Where Does AI Come from? A Global Case Study across > Europe, Africa, and Latin America.” New Political Economy 30 (3): 359–72. > doi:10.1080/13563467.2025.2462137. (preprint access here: > https://inria.hal.science/hal-04933816v1) The Journal Globalizations has published a special issue on The Political Economy of Artificial Intelligence in Latin America. It features our article on AI labor in Brazil and Argentina. > Tubaro, Paola, Antonio A. Casilli, Mariana Fernández Massi, Julieta Longo, > Juana Torres Cierpe, and Matheus Viana Braz. 2025. “The Digital Labour of > Artificial Intelligence in Latin America: A Comparison of Argentina, Brazil, > and Venezuela.” Globalizations, February, 1–16. > doi:10.1080/14747731.2025.2465171. (preprint access here: > https://cnrs.hal.science/hal-04935984v1) The Handbook of Digital Labor, edited by Jack Linchuan Qiu, Shinjoung Yeo, and Richard Maxwell, has been released by Wiley Blackwell. This comprehensive work brings together leading voices on the transformations of labor in the digital age. Among its contributions, our chapter on global inequalities and AI, comparing Venezuela, France, Madagascar, and Brazil. > Casilli, Antonio A., Paola Tubaro, Maxime Cornet, Clément Le Ludec, Juana > Torres-Cierpe, et al. 2025. Global Inequalities in the Production of > Artificial Intelligence: A Four-Country Study on Data Work. In: Jack Linchuan > Qiu, Shinjoung Yeo, Richard Maxwell (eds.). The Handbook of Digital Labor, > Wiley Blackwell, pp.219-232, 2025, ISBN10: 9781119981800. (preprint access > here: https://hal.science/hal-04742532v2) The journal New Technology, Work and Employment has made available, as an online first, the new article by Juana Torres-Cierpe and Paola Tubaro about Venezuelan data workers. > Torres-Cierpe, Juana and Paola Tubaro. 2025. Uninvited Protagonists: The > Networked Agency of Venezuelan Platform Data Workers. New Technology, Work and > Employment. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12340 (preprint access here: > https://hal.science/hal-05041068v1)

We’re proud to share that DiPLab research was featured at the 9th Regulating for Decent Work (RDW) Conference, hosted by the International Labour Office in Geneva from 2–4 July 2025. In a joint paper with Nagla Rizk (A2K4D, American University in Cairo), DiPLab’s Myriam Raymond presented research titled Regulating Digital Platform Payments: Barriers to Fair Compensation and Policy Implications for Egyptian Microworkers. > This study draws on extensive survey data (N=948) and focus group discussions > with Egyptian microworkers performing small online tasks on global platforms.  > It sheds light on the lived reality of financial precarity: unpredictable > payments, opaque fees, currency exchange losses, and reliance on informal > intermediaries. Many workers remain excluded from fair financial participation > due to technical, institutional, and regulatory gaps. Our findings emphasize > that these payment frictions are not marginal inconveniences—they are central > to workers’ experience and reinforce their vulnerability in ways largely > invisible to existing labor regulation. The paper calls for targeted financial > inclusion policies, better platform accountability, and a serious rethink of > regulatory frameworks to protect microworkers as legitimate workers deserving > fair pay and institutional support. > > Within the frame of this ongoing study, a closed-door meeting with key > policymakers and public actors will be convened on November 2025. Amongst the > participants: Egyptian Ministry of ManPower, Central Bank of Egypt, Central > Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), ILO Egypt’s office, > National Telecommunications Regulating Agency (NTRA), Financial Regulatory > Authority (FRA), and the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency > (MSMEDA).   This year’s RDW theme focused on Strengthening labour institutions and worker voice to deliver decent employment. It brought together an extraordinary range of grounded research from all over the globe—scholars, policymakers, and practitioners all exchanging ideas on how to make work fairer, safer, and more inclusive. Every session, keynote, and plenary was packed with insights. It was a privilege to be part of such a collective effort where research meets purpose and gives real meaning to what we do.

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).

Antonio Casilli, professor at Institut Polytechnique de Paris and author of Waiting for Robots. The Hired Hands of Automation (University of Chicago Press, 2025), was interviewed by Radio Onda Rossa, one of the oldest independent Italian “free” radios. The name of the program was Entropia Massima (Maximum Entropy) and the topic was Data Extractivism, Artificial Intelligence, and work. https://archive.degenerazione.xyz/download/ent_max_24_25_202411/puntata_EDD8_NR.mp3 The first part examines artificial intelligence from the perspective of the hidden labor that makes it work. Casilli explains that behind every algorithm, chatbot, or app lies a vast network of often invisible, underpaid workers who train and moderate AI systems. The discussion links digital exploitation to automation, showing that human labor is not eliminated but merely relocated and made less visible. In the second part, the focus turns to “invisibilized labor” in the age of platforms and AI. Casilli describes how many digital workers, even in Europe, remain hidden from public view, often bound by confidentiality agreements and precarious conditions. The segment highlights the historical continuity of hidden labor, drawing parallels between past practices and new forms of global exploitation that move from physical assembly lines to cognitive and digital ones. The third part addresses political and labor perspectives, including grassroots union initiatives, collective legal actions, and the idea of AI cooperatives. It also discusses the concept of a “digital universal income” as a way to redistribute value and recognize the contributions of both “data workers” and user-consumers, stressing the need for social justice adapted to the changes brought by automation. To read the full transcript of the episode, click here.