The cheap clothes you wear and the trendy shoes you wear are probably insecurity by factory workers in countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indonesia, or Chinese. They may even be the result. forced labor. With technology same thing happens.
Even though we can’t see it, an invisible thread connects it. mobile The generation you keep in your pocket is our social networks favorites and artificial intelligence that fascinates us so much with countries in the global south labor Especially much cheaper in Turkey Africa Sub-Saharan or southeast Asia. It’s not a thread, but supply chain spherical. A reality that goes beyond the extraction of essential minerals for the manufacture of technological devices such as lithium, coltan or cobalt.
this is the status of celebrities ChatGPT, a program that can simulate a human speech and answer any questions from users in near real time. Summarizing complex texts in simple terms, doing homework, composing music, or even writing a novel in imitation of a literary style. It may seem like you’re doing magic while interacting with the machine, but this feeling is far from reality. The system, which is currently used by more than 100 million users per month, is programmed to learn from the millions of data it extracts. Internet.
post-colonial inequality
On January 18, a TIME magazine investigation revealed: turn on AI, the company responsible for this chatbot outsourced workers in Kenya to check if it is working properly. Using information from the web causes ChatGPT to make big mistakes and even multiply hate messages. The Kenyan staff’s job is to repeatedly test the program and flag the wrong answers. This classification allows to reduce bias and improve responses. This job was vital, but still, his salary was equal to two dollars per hour worked.
The decision to delegate these tasks to Kenya is testament to an unequal post-colonial relationship between tech giants and developing countries. Salary paid to Kenyan workers is higher than the national average, but far from $14.71. United States of America for the same task. Other positions at this company earn between $192,000 and $273,000 per year. After millions of dollars investment Microsoft In January, OpenAI was valued at $29 billion.
“There are more and more workers willing to compete frantically to reach ever lower wages,” the technopolitical researcher explains. Ekaitz canceled. “A model that spans every corner of the world.”
North-South asymmetry
This reality is far from an anomaly. OpenAI outsourced these workers through Sama, a Californian company that manages centers in Kenya, and Uganda to perform these more mechanical tasks applied by other giants in the industry, such as Google, WalmartMicrosoft or Aim. When you ‘scroll’ Facebook And instagram You don’t watch murder, rape, or animal abuse videos because they don’t exist, because employees have seen them before and removed them. With the psychological effect that comes with it.
Sama defines itself as an ethical company whose mission is to use ethical values. digital economy giving opportunities to vulnerable people. However, lawsuits are filed against him. forced laborhuman trafficking and oppression unionsAlso includes meta. One of these complaints was made last May by Daniel Motaung, an indirect employee of the social media giant. “When you’re poor, it’s hard to negotiate in a work environment,” he told Africa Report. “While they can unionize, these workers will do so in the context of vulnerable countries such as Kenya, where they cannot negotiate with these multinationals and where the lack of labor protection is too great,” Cancela adds. International pressure made the company led by Sama stop providing moderation services. Mark Zuckerberg.
economic benefit
As in other industries such as textiles or agri-food, tech companies in the northern hemisphere are taking advantage of a south where low-value and low-paying jobs are concentrated. HE substitution It represents a significant economic benefit. Saving more on labor problems and workers’ salaries while receiving subsidies from countries that want to attract them richcompanies such as Meta, alphabet (Google parent company) or Microsoft exploit loopholes in global privacy laws. taxes Stopping paying around $2.8 billion, according to a 2020 study by the NGO ActionAid. Such an incentive would only perpetuate this power asymmetry.
view concentrated most of its production. iphone in China. escalation of tension between Washington And beijing made the apple company and other heavyweights in the industry like Google, Amazon or Microsoft moves some of the production of its products to countries such as: Vietnamese, India anyone Thailand To reduce its dependence on the Asian giant. While some of this strategy responds to causes, geopolitics, companies continue to give priority to the pocket. According to the Country Statistics Office, the annual income of Chinese producers has tripled over the past ten years to exceed 8,820 euros. Labor is much cheaper at new destinations.
This logic of vamping inference points in a circular direction. “The less developed the country, the higher the penetration of these companies,” Cancela says. “They exploit countries and their resources because it’s the only way to secure their profits and compete with a country like China that has no labor rights.” That’s the model we’re going for.
Source: Informacion
James Sean is a writer for “Social Bites”. He covers a wide range of topics, bringing the latest news and developments to his readers. With a keen sense of what’s important and a passion for writing, James delivers unique and insightful articles that keep his readers informed and engaged.