Humans of AI: Digital workerism and articulations of sociality in AI data work in the Philippines

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ID: 285450
2025
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Abstract
This thesis seeks to understand the nature and purpose of sociality among Filipino AI data workers. I use Muldoon et al.’s (2024) term ‘AI data work’ in pertaining to the human labor involved in annotating data sets for artificial intelligence (AI) models. The data annotation market continues to grow alongside the demand for accurate AI models, with the Philippines being among the countries that provide data annotation services to the Global North. Extant literature on AI data workers often describes their work as menial, precarious, and isolating, whereas literature on digital platform workers reveal their tendencies to engage in social interactions to survive and navigate ambiguous working conditions. However, the nature of sociality among AI data workers remains understudied. I employ Englert et al.’s (2020) framework on ‘digital workerism’ to facilitate a research process that engages with the technical, political, and social compositions that underpin AI data work in the Philippines. Drawing from in-depth interviews with Filipino AI data workers, I find that sociality transpires when workers form a sense of mutual aid or engage in transactional relations such as knowledge-sharing on tasks, the role of language in group chats, and selling answer keys for assessment exams, to name a few. Employing the digital workerism framework in examining Filipino AI data workers not only spotlights the nuances in their work experience, but also reveals how sociality becomes a step in worker organization. Communication scholars, legislators, and academic think tanks may find this thesis useful in examining AI data work in the Philippines or in identifying ways to provide them better support amid uncertainty and ambiguity at work.Keywords: Digital Platform Work, AI Data Work, Digital Workerism, Sociality
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persistent_1760655648_68f17920a1f67 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Villanueva, China Patricia T.
Journal Malay Journal
Year 2025
DOI
DOI not found
URL
https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdm_comm/19
Keywords Keywords not found

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