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AIAIGovSpec
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InfrastructureInfrastructurescontested

Data work and content moderation

The human labour that labels data, rates model outputs and moderates content so that AI systems work, often outsourced, low-paid and out of sight.

Inspect in field modelAbout this object

Source-linked claims

source-assertionConfidence: mediumContestability: medium

An investigation found that Kenyan workers labelling harmful content for a chatbot’s safety filter took home roughly $1.32–$2 an hour while the contract paid the outsourcing firm $12.50 an hour; the firm disputed the take-home figures.

Our reading: One contract in one country, reported by journalists; the firm’s own figure was $1.46–$3.74 after tax. It shows how value is split along one chain, not the pay of all data workers.

Inspect evidence · 1 passage

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Exclusive: OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour to Make ChatGPT Less Toxic (opens in a new tab)

Pay and contract paragraphs

Kenyan workers labelling harmful text for a chatbot safety filter through an outsourcing firm took home roughly $1.32–$2 an hour, while the contract rate paid to the firm was $12.50 an hour; the firm said workers could earn $1.46–$3.74 after tax. Workers described the work as psychologically taxing.

Scope note: Investigative journalism. The outsourcing firm disputed the pay figures; both ranges are recorded.

Passage checked 2026-10-18 · time-kenya-pay

source-assertionConfidence: highContestability: medium

Independent ratings of 16 online labour platforms in 2024–25 found evidence that workers earn at least the local minimum wage on only four, and concluded that the platforms remain far from safeguarding basic fair-work standards; the best scored 8 out of 10.

Our reading: Scores reflect evidence the researchers could verify; platforms can dispute them.

Inspect evidence · 1 passage

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Fairwork Cloudwork Ratings 2025 (opens in a new tab)

pp. 3–4 and conclusion (p. 34)

Of 16 online labour platforms rated in 2024–25, evidence of policies ensuring the local minimum wage was found for only four; the authors conclude the platforms remain far from safeguarding basic fair-work standards and that unfair and insecure work is the norm on most.

Scope note: Research ratings of 16 online labour platforms against five fair-work principles; fieldwork February 2024 to January 2025. The final part of the report was not read.

Passage checked 2026-10-18 · fairwork-cloudwork-findings

source-assertionConfidence: mediumContestability: medium

Research with data workers in Latin America found that task instructions impose clients’ views on how data is labelled, and that precarious conditions make workers follow them rather than question them.

Our reading: Qualitative study of specific platforms and one outsourcing firm; it explains a mechanism rather than measuring its prevalence.

Inspect evidence · 1 passage

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

The Data-Production Dispositif (opens in a new tab)

Abstract

Analysing 210 instruction documents and 55 interviews, the study finds that task instructions impose clients’ worldviews on data, and that precarious work and economic dependency make workers obedient to those instructions.

Scope note: Qualitative study of data workers in Venezuela and Argentina.

Passage checked 2026-10-18 · miceli-posada-abstract

interpretationConfidence: mediumContestability: medium

Data work is part of AI infrastructure: the pay, protection and voice of the people who label and moderate shape both who bears AI’s costs and the quality of the systems built on their work.

Our reading: AIGovSpec’s interpretation, placing labour inside the infrastructure object and the distribution test.

Inspect evidence · 3 passages

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Exclusive: OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour to Make ChatGPT Less Toxic (opens in a new tab)

Pay and contract paragraphs

Kenyan workers labelling harmful text for a chatbot safety filter through an outsourcing firm took home roughly $1.32–$2 an hour, while the contract rate paid to the firm was $12.50 an hour; the firm said workers could earn $1.46–$3.74 after tax. Workers described the work as psychologically taxing.

Scope note: Investigative journalism. The outsourcing firm disputed the pay figures; both ranges are recorded.

Passage checked 2026-10-18 · time-kenya-pay

Fairwork Cloudwork Ratings 2025 (opens in a new tab)

pp. 3–4 and conclusion (p. 34)

Of 16 online labour platforms rated in 2024–25, evidence of policies ensuring the local minimum wage was found for only four; the authors conclude the platforms remain far from safeguarding basic fair-work standards and that unfair and insecure work is the norm on most.

Scope note: Research ratings of 16 online labour platforms against five fair-work principles; fieldwork February 2024 to January 2025. The final part of the report was not read.

Passage checked 2026-10-18 · fairwork-cloudwork-findings

The Data-Production Dispositif (opens in a new tab)

Abstract

Analysing 210 instruction documents and 55 interviews, the study finds that task instructions impose clients’ worldviews on data, and that precarious work and economic dependency make workers obedient to those instructions.

Scope note: Qualitative study of data workers in Venezuela and Argentina.

Passage checked 2026-10-18 · miceli-posada-abstract

Contrasting perspectives

Editorial lenses, not mutually exclusive schools or an exhaustive account of the debate.

Workers as investigators

Data workers document their own conditions and set the research questions, publishing their findings rather than being studied by others.

Our reading: A labour-led project hosted by research institutes; it reports workers’ own accounts rather than representative statistics.

Inspect evidence · 1 passage

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Data Workers’ Inquiry (opens in a new tab)

About the project

Data workers in several countries set the questions and publish their own findings about their workplaces, as a participatory alternative to research done on them.

Scope note: Labour voice: participatory research in which data workers investigate and publish on their own workplaces. Launch date from the Weizenbaum Institute announcement.

Passage checked 2026-10-18 · data-workers-inquiry-method

Fair-work standards

Independent ratings hold platforms to minimum standards on pay, conditions, contracts, management and representation, and find most falling short.

Our reading: Ratings depend on platforms’ cooperation and the researchers’ evidence thresholds; a low score means evidence of a standard was not found.

Inspect evidence · 1 passage

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Fairwork Cloudwork Ratings 2025 (opens in a new tab)

pp. 3–4 and conclusion (p. 34)

Of 16 online labour platforms rated in 2024–25, evidence of policies ensuring the local minimum wage was found for only four; the authors conclude the platforms remain far from safeguarding basic fair-work standards and that unfair and insecure work is the norm on most.

Scope note: Research ratings of 16 online labour platforms against five fair-work principles; fieldwork February 2024 to January 2025. The final part of the report was not read.

Passage checked 2026-10-18 · fairwork-cloudwork-findings

Related context: exposure, not only loss

Labour-market research measures which jobs are exposed to generative AI and expects most to change rather than disappear, with exposure falling unevenly across countries and between women and men.

Our reading: This perspective concerns jobs changed by generative AI, not data work itself; it is included because the guide covers both. Exposure is not job loss.

Inspect evidence · 1 passage

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (opens in a new tab)

Abstract and key findings

About one in four workers worldwide is in an occupation with some generative AI exposure. The highest-exposure category covers 4.7% of women’s jobs against 2.4% of men’s, and exposure rises with country income. Transformation of jobs is more likely than replacement.

Scope note: Intergovernmental and tripartite (governments, employers, workers). Measures exposure, not realised job loss.

Passage checked 2026-10-09 · ilo-exposure-uneven

Provenance

  1. Exclusive: OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour to Make ChatGPT Less Toxic

    TIME · report · published 2023-01-18

    Investigative journalism. The outsourcing firm disputed the pay figures; both ranges are recorded.

    time-kenya-data-labelling-2023 · Last checked 2026-10-18 · claims and passages

  2. Fairwork Cloudwork Ratings 2025

    Fairwork (Oxford Internet Institute and WZB Berlin Social Science Center) · report · publication date not recorded · Published 2025 (upload path dated May 2025)

    Research ratings of 16 online labour platforms against five fair-work principles; fieldwork February 2024 to January 2025. The final part of the report was not read.

    fairwork-cloudwork-2025 · Last checked 2026-10-18 · claims and passages

  3. The Data-Production Dispositif

    arXiv (published version in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, CSCW 2022; venue not verified on the page read) · scholarship · published 2022-05-24

    Qualitative study of data workers in Venezuela and Argentina.

    miceli-posada-2022-data-production · Last checked 2026-10-18 · claims and passages

  4. Data Workers’ Inquiry

    DAIR Institute, Weizenbaum Institute and TU Berlin · report · published 2024-07-08

    Labour voice: participatory research in which data workers investigate and publish on their own workplaces. Launch date from the Weizenbaum Institute announcement.

    data-workers-inquiry · Last checked 2026-10-18 · claims and passages

  5. Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure

    International Labour Organization · report · published 2025-05-20 · ILO Working Paper 140

    Intergovernmental and tripartite (governments, employers, workers). Measures exposure, not realised job loss.

    ilo-genai-jobs-2025 · Last checked 2026-10-09 · claims and passages