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Cited by 113Digital Economy and Work TransformationCybernetics and Technology in SocietyEthics and Social Impacts of AI

Heteromation and its (dis)contents: The invisible division of labor between humans and machines

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Ekbia, Hamid, Nardi, Bonnie·2014·First Monday
DOI 10.5210/fm.v19i6.5331
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Abstract

The division of labor between humans and computer systems has changed along both technical and human dimensions. Technically, there has been a shift from technologies of automation, the aim of which was to disallow human intervention at nearly all points in the system, to technologies of “heteromation” that push critical tasks to end users as indispensable mediators. As this has happened, the large population of human beings who have been driven out by the first type of technology are drawn back into the computational fold by the second type. Turning artificial intelligence on its head, one technology fills the gap created by the other, but with a vengeance that unsettles established mechanisms of reward, fulfillment, and compensation. In this fashion, replacement of human beings and their irrelevance to technological systems has given way to new “modes of engagement” with remarkable social, economic, and ethical implications. In this paper we provide a historical backdrop for heteromation and explore and explicate some of these displacements through analysis of a number of cases, including Mechanical Turk, the video games FoldIt and League of Legends, and social media.

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  • Workers' labor disappears from corporate imaginaries of progress, maintaining the mythology of AI as a technological achievement.

    “While the data work industry is rapidly growing and becoming increasingly structured and professionalized, workers’ labor disappears from corporate imaginaries of progress [21, 41, 55, 137], which serves to maintain the mythology of AI as a technological achievement [11, 68, 99].”

    From 'The plan is just survival': Data Work in Kenya and the Regime of Entrapment (2026) · cites this paper as [41]

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Authors
Ekbia, H., & Nardi, B.
Affiliations
  • Indiana University Bloomington (US)
  • University of California, Irvine (US)
ORCID
Venue
First Monday
Publisher
University of Illinois Libraries
Published
2014-05-23
ISSN
  • 1396-0458 (ISSN-L)
  • 1396-0466
DOI
10.5210/fm.v19i6.5331
OpenAlex
W2051815411
Cited by
113
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 1
FWCI
32.59
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • First Monday (publishedVersion)
  • First Monday (acceptedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Economy and Work Transformation
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Cybernetics and Technology in Society
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
Keywords
division of labor, automation, human-machine interaction, artificial intelligence, modes of engagement, reward and compensation, Mechanical Turk, Foldit, League of Legends, social media, history of technology

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