‘Someone else will do it for less’: Refugees in Kenya are powering tech for dwindling pay
Refugee gig workers for tech companies don’t know how much they’ll be paid – if AI hasn’t already taken their jobs In a portable building in Kakuma, a refugee camp near Kenya ’s northern border with South Sudan , Grace used ChatGPT to research translations of Christian hymns in languages she doesn’t speak. She didn’t know the client, the purpose of her work or whether she would be paid, but as a…
In Kakuma, a refugee camp situated near Kenya's northern border with South Sudan, a group of refugees are working as gig workers for tech companies. These individuals, like Grace, are uncertain about the amount they will be paid for their services or if they will actually receive any payment at all. The reason behind their work is often unclear too - they lack the legal status to work in Kenya, making any opportunity they can find crucial.
One such worker is Grace, who requested anonymity due to a nondisclosure agreement. She utilized the AI-powered language model ChatGPT to research translations of Christian hymns into languages she doesn't speak. Grace initiated ChatGPT to translate the hymn's English text into an assigned East Asian language. Following this, she employed the translated text to search for existing versions and gather information about its translator, author, and Christian denomination.
Grace's findings were then fed into AOP Connect, a crowdsourced research platform owned by British AI enterprise software company RWS. This setup enables these refugees to participate in tech-related tasks, albeit under precarious conditions, as they are paid diminishing wages or none at all.
Written by urgent.news from Guardian Technology's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
