Mapping the hidden global labor powering AI
Most people know by now that artificial intelligence powers much of the online world, sifting through social media posts, planning driving routes or helping to choose a movie to watch. But what goes largely unseen is the human labor—often performed by people working for low wages in the Global South—that makes this careful algorithmic lifestyle curation possible.
This article explores the hidden global labor that powers artificial intelligence (AI), often performed by workers in the Global South for low wages. Cunyan Ma, an undergraduate at Brown University, is creating an interactive map to shed light on this issue. The map connects technology companies, their intermediaries, and data workers around the world.
Ma's primary motivation is to visualize the concept of AI colonialism—an extraction of difficult, low-paid labor from the Global South for profit in the West. The map presents links between 13 data-labeling companies, 141 corporate customers, and 31 countries containing data worker sites. While not comprehensive, Ma hopes the map will serve as a public education tool, highlighting the economic and political structure behind AI.
Computer science professor Suresh Venkatasubramanian notes that understanding AI requires recognizing it as an aggregation of human knowledge and effort. Ma envisions expanding the map to include other industries and uses power mapping as a means to foster worker solidarity and promote equitable labor distribution.
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