Gregory's ServerThose working on the repetitive task of providing examples to train or evaluate systems like ChatGPT or DallE do not expect an allknowing machine on the horizon. They clearly see how hiding the extent to which their labour powers these systems helps multinational corporations sell the supposed power of their technology, while exploiting millions of ppl around the world. These workers are organising to improve their working conditions & curb the development and deployment of harmful AI systems.
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Higherpaid tech workers are also organising with their lowerpaid counterparts, not only to advocate for better working conditions but also to stop their organisations from developing harmful AI systems. From Google workers protesting against the company’s involvement in developing computervision technology for drone warfare in partnership with the American government, to the NoTechForApartheid campaign started in partnership with Google and Amazon employees, tech workers are protesting against the use of their labour in creating harmful technology. The labour movement’s pushback against the proliferation of harmful AI systems is not limited to tech workers: many industries that are affected by the potential uses of AI systems have joined the fight. AI was a key topic of contention in the historic strikes by writers and actors in Hollywood in 2023. Concept artists hired lobbyists and filed classaction lawsuits against companies that generated “AI art” using their work as training data, without consent or compensation. Creatives refused to accept studio terms stipulating that their material could be used to train generativeAI systems that could then put them out of work or devalue their labour. Given widening inequalities around the world, the climate catastrophe pushing more people into the margins, and the growing number of refugees, which is projected to rocket while tech billionaires amass more money than ever, the labour movement is only going to grow in importance during 2024. It has a vital role to play as it becomes one of the key ways in which the development of harmful AI systems can be curbed. |
For example, in 2023 Kenyan workers employed by 3rd party outsourcing companies for the likes of Meta, OpenAI & ByteDance, established the 1st African Content Moderators Union, & 1 of them sued Sama, an outsourcing company, for unionbusting. As noted by Adrienne Williams, a former Amazon delivery driver who campaigned for better working conditions, the less labor that companies are able to exploit, the less they are able to develop harmful AI systems, because it would not be profitable to do so.