Beyond Mechanical Turk: The Work of Brazilians on Global AI Platforms
Open accessAbstract
The aim of this chapter is to analyse the micro-work of Brazilians on global artificial intelligence platforms. In context of platformisation of labour, we show that artificial intelligence still requires a lot of human work, leading to global value chains and a global gig economy. In a digital economy, there are inequalities involving local workers and global platforms. At present, however, most research on micro-work focuses on the Global North. Latin America remains a blindspot. This research investigates the micro-work of Brazilians on two specific platforms, Appen and Lionbridge. This research reveal that micro-work is closely intertwined with the historical informality of labour in the country, a gig economy that existed prior to digital labor itself. There is no ‘digital labour universalism’. Rather, there is an AI colonialism reinforcing North–South inequalities from a platform labour perspective.
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Cites
Algorithms, Governance, and Governmentality: On Governing Academic Writing
Introna, L. D. (2016) · Science, Technology, & Human Values · doi:10.1177/0162243915587360 · Cited by 339 · see citing works
Tubaro, P., Casilli, A. A., & Coville, M. (2020) · Big Data & Society · doi:10.1177/2053951720919776 · Cited by 262 · see citing works
Micro-work, artificial intelligence and the automotive industry
Tubaro, P., & Casilli, A. A. (2019) · Journal of Industrial and Business Economics · doi:10.1007/s40812-019-00121-1 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
- Authors
- Grohmann, R., & Araújo, W. F.
- Venue
- AI for Everyone? Critical Perspectives
- Publisher
- University of Westminster Press
- Published
- 2021-09-20
- Pages
- 247-266
- OpenAlex
- W3200800975
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 5
- FWCI
- 19.97
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- University of Westminster Press eBooks (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Economy and Work Transformation
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Industrial relations › Legal and Labor Studies
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Employment, Labor, and Gender Studies
- Keywords
- Brazilian workers, AI platforms, platform work, gig economy, global value chains, digital labor, informality, North-South inequality, Latin America
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