Culture
African Gig Workers Unknowingly Helped Train U.S. Military AI Systems
An investigation reveals that gig workers in Africa hired through the data-labeling platform Appen were unknowingly annotating data used to train AI systems for the U.S. military. The workers, paid a fraction of Western wages, had no idea their labeling work was feeding into defense and intelligence applications.
Key Takeaways
- African gig workers hired through Appen unknowingly labeled data for U.S. military AI systems
- Workers were paid a fraction of Western wages with no knowledge of the military application
- The multi-layered subcontracting chain deliberately obscures end-use from data annotators
- Labor advocates are calling for transparency requirements in the AI training data supply chain
- The case raises questions about informed consent in the global AI labor economy
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