The post African Workers: The Unseen Force Behind AI and Social Media Moderation appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

TLDR Content moderators and data annotators in African countries like Kenya and Uganda work long hours for low pay, often exposed to disturbing content. These workers play a crucial role in training AI and maintaining social media platforms, but face poor working conditions and psychological stress. Many workers are on short-term contracts with little job security, and fear losing their jobs if they complain about conditions. The work is intensely monitored, with strict productivity targets and surveillance of workers’ activities. Behind the sleek façade of artificial intelligence and social media platforms lies a hidden workforce of content moderators and data annotators, many based in African countries, who endure grueling conditions for low pay. These workers, essential to the functioning of AI systems and social media platforms, face long hours, psychological stress, and job insecurity while processing disturbing content and labeling data for some of the world’s largest tech companies. In outsourcing centers across Kenya and Uganda, workers like Mercy and Anita spend their days sifting through social media posts to remove toxic content or labeling data to train AI algorithms. Mercy, a content moderator for Meta in Nairobi, is expected to process one “ticket” every 55 seconds during her 10-hour shift. This often involves viewing disturbing images and videos, including graphic violence and sexual content. “The most disturbing thing was not just the violence,” one moderator reported, “it was the sexually explicit and disturbing content.” Workers in these moderation centers are continually exposed to graphic material, including suicides, torture, and rape, with little time to process what they’re witnessing. They’re expected to handle between 500 and 1,000 tickets per day, leading to severe psychological strain. Anita, working for a business process outsourcing (BPO) company in Gulu, Uganda, spends hours reviewing footage of drivers for an autonomous vehicle company. Her task…

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Filed under: News - @ July 9, 2024 12:08 am