Facial Recognition Technology

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Many of the face tagging tasks on micral work sites are used to train facial recognition technologies. The technology contains uge i logics and produces highly races results, often targeting black and brown people as criminal suspects. But workers don't know whether they're helping an agarithm used by the l a p d. It may be a solid ment to say that this has always been the case under capitalism,. but i would argue that micre work actually represents a significant shift in the knowledge available to workers. And then building a future on top of that, assuming or not taking into account the workers who are actually behind that seems like really the wrong way to approach things.

Paris Marx is joined by Phil Jones to discuss the hidden microworkers behind supposedly AI-powered automation from major tech companies, how it differs in the Global North and South, and what it means for how we think about the future.

Phil Jones is the author of Work Without the Worker: Labour in the Age of Platform Capitalism and a researcher at Autonomy. Follow Phil on Twitter at @philjones7771.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Phil wrote about digital piecework for The Guardian and had an excerpt about refugee labor in Rest of World.
Turkopticon helps workers on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk gain some information on the contractors offering tasks on the platform.
In 2020, Gizmodo did surveys to find out about workers’ experiences on Mechanical Turk. There were a lot of horror stories.
In 2014, workers on the platform sent emails to Jeff Bezos to ask for better conditions.

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