Notices by Milagros Miceli (milamiceli@dair-community.social)

🚨 NEW INQUIRY!!!

Our own Fasica Berhane Gebrekidan partnered up with United Tech and Allied Workers (UTAW) to reveal the exploitation of trust and safety workers and the displacement of human labor through inadequate IA systems, this time at TikTok in London.

➡️ data-workers.org/fasica-utaw/

🚨NEW INQUIRY!
Barcelona-based content moderator Horacio Espinosa translates his workplace ethnography into a heartbreaking yet powerful zine.
If you use social media, you'll want to read and share this: https://data-workers.org/horacio-en/

Today, DWI publishes a powerful essay by Michael Geoffrey Asia, who works impersonating an AI sex companion: https://data-workers.org/michael/

This piece offers a rare glimpse into the psychological and economic realities behind one of the fastest-growing sectors: AI-assisted intimacy.

But Michael's story isn't an exception. AI impersonation is far more widespread than most people think.

Remember the Amazon “Just Walk Out” supermarkets that were marketed as automated but actually relied on thousands of data workers in India?
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actually-1-000-people-in-india-2024-4

Or the CEO of shopping startup Nate, who was charged with fraud for telling investors and customers that their system was powered by AI, but instead used human labor in the Philippines and Romania?
https://fortune.com/2025/04/11/albert-saniger-nate-shopping-app-fraud-ai-justice-department

Or when the CEO of Fireflies admitted that his supposedly AI-powered transcription service originally ran on “two guys surviving on pizza“?
https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/usd1-billion-ai-company-co-founder-admits-that-its-usd100-a-month-transcription-service-was-originally-two-guys-surviving-on-pizza-and-typing-out-notes-by-hand/

Now imagine believing that you're sharing your private fantasies with a bot that cannot judge or remember. Just that, on the other side, is a man in a one-room home in Nairobi, pretending to be an AI companion.

That man is Michael, and this is his story: https://data-workers.org/michael/

This recognition would be a joy under normal circumstances. Yet it comes at a time when many of us in German academia are facing intense pressure and scrutiny for the topics we research and the positions we take publicly, especially those of us living in Germany with a migrant status.

Just a year ago, several colleagues were threatened with the withdrawal of funding, and some even doxxed by the media for having signed an open letter calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza and for supporting our students who were protesting said genocide in Berlin.

I’ve been included among the "100 Brightest Minds in Berlin's Science," a list published annually by Tagesspiegel and widely celebrated by Berlin universities.

These past few weeks, I’ve done a lot of public engagement, and it’s reminded me how hard science communication can be!

📢We're proud to support the launch of the Data Labelers Association of Kenya with an online event! Join us to meet the workers and support their struggle.

📅February 13
⏰8pm Kenya/ 6pm EU/ 12pm ET
✅Watch and submit your questions to the speakers: https://twitch.tv/dair_institute

@DAIR @timnitGebru @alex @turkopticon

📢 This Thursday, I’ll be speaking at the European Parliament alongside MEP @leilachaibi and Prof. @casilli. We’ll be joined by data workers from 🇪🇸🇨🇴🇮🇹🇺🇸🇸🇾 to discuss the labor behind AI and what worker-centric regulation could look like.

🎥 Watch live, 2:30pm CET: https://www.youtube.com/live/U4692ygg6l4

🌟THIS MONDAY!🌟

We're closing out the year with a powerful panel on how we’re all data workers—and how we can resist. Featuring an incredible lineup: Oscar Araya (@arteesetica), Alex Minschall (@Guerrilla_Translation), John Lopez (Writers Guild of America), Rafael Grohmann (Toronto University), and the great @alex (@DAIR)

Register to attend: https://events.zoom.us/ev/AoEkvePmTHAKVpasFIEsgtOhjo05XHtj3bcYn0rgaFtkmUpudYOB~AoUrcNrrBxZzhu2yox7LZ7992KVbxOWg5EH4lILGm2SSBlakP-nLYXjdxg

📢 Data Workers' Inquiry online panel on Monday, Sept. 30!
Three data workers with Telus International in Essen, Germany will speak about having a career in content moderation. The speakers remain anonymous because they fear retaliation.
Register here: https://tinyurl.com/DWI-Telus

@DAIR @superrr

The murder of Palestinian civilians is enabled with the support of tech companies, researchers, and practitioners. I'm proud to be a part of the @DAIR
team as we refuse silence in the face of this injustice and demand a #CeasefireNOW to #StopGazaGenocide.

Read the statement here: https://www.dair-institute.org/blog/palestine-10-25-23/