{"id":161237,"date":"2023-11-15T15:46:25","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T14:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=161237"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:03","slug":"who-cleanses-your-social-media-feed-students-learn-about-digital-exploitation-in-a-lecture-on-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2023\/11\/15\/who-cleanses-your-social-media-feed-students-learn-about-digital-exploitation-in-a-lecture-on-artificial-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"Who cleanses your social media feed? Students learn about digital exploitation in a lecture on artificial intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Through the AI and societal impact<\/em> lecture series, students explore the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on various aspects of life. This time, they learned about exploitation on the digital labour market.<\/p>\n

\"\"

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPauline Wiersema<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Most of the students already sit in the lecture hall in the Van der Goot building when guest lecturer Claartje ter Hoeven comes in. She is going to tell students all about ghost workers\u00a0 today. These are workers who organise and interpret big data online.<\/p>\n\t

\n\t\t

Lecture:<\/strong> AI and societal impact<\/em> (Wednesday at 11.00 a.m., Van der Goot Building, M1-17)<\/p>\n

Lecturer:<\/strong> This lecture series is coordinated by Michele Murgia. The students have a guest lecturer almost every week. This week\u2019s guest lecturer was Claartje ter Hoeven.<\/p>\n

Subject:<\/strong> Ghost workers<\/p>\n

Audience:<\/strong> Sixteen students from various disciplines (ranging from Economics to Business Administration and Communication), all interested in the subject.<\/p>\n

Reason to attend:<\/strong> A lively debate ensued among the students. The lecturer had originally intended to show a documentary, but the spirited and lengthy discussions left her short of time.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Big data<\/h2>

\u201cYou can\u2019t interpret big data \u2013 a huge data set \u2013 without labels\u201d, Ter Hoeven told the students. \u201cIn order to train AI systems, you need labelled data. That means people have to train a system to recognise an image as being of an apple, say, or of a banana\u201d, the lecturer went on, pointing to the overripe banana and weirdly shaped apples in her PowerPoint presentation. \u201cAt a certain point, artificial intelligence is capable of recognising apples and bananas by itself, but if these fruits deviate from the \u2018norm\u2019 in terms of shape or colour, AI will no longer see them for what they are. This is where the ghost workers come in, to help the system out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPauline Wiersema<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Among other things, ghost workers label data for traffic situations (labelling traffic signs), medical procedures (labelling trembling hands) and interactions that are of a violent or sexual nature. Images in the last category are labelled as inappropriate content, so that they do not end up in our feeds.<\/p>\n

Exploitation<\/h2>
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPauline Wiersema<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Ghost workers look for assignments on online platforms. \u201cLet\u2019s say you\u2019re a business owner who needs labelled data to train your AI system. You can post the assignment on one of those online platforms\u201d, Ter Hoeven explained. Examples of such digital labour platforms are Amazon Mechanical Turk, Clickworker and Microworkers.<\/p>\n

The problem, Ter Hoeven continued, is that this platform work is currently still unregulated. This puts ghost workers in a similar position as on-call workers, who likewise lack employment contracts and workers\u2019 rights. \u201cWorldwide, there are millions of people who do this type of work, and 10\u00a0per\u00a0cent of them depend on it for their livelihood. They work full-time and on average earn between 3,000 and 5,000 euros a year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A student raised his hand. \u201cThat might seem a pittance by European standards, but this work can be done from anywhere in the world. For people in places like \u2013 I don\u2019t know \u2013 India, this should be enough money to cover their basic needs, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPauline Wiersema<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Ter Hoeven: \u201cAn investigation by Fairwork, affiliated with the University of Oxford, has shown that most ghost workers worldwide are paid less than the living wage and don\u2019t have decent terms and conditions of employment. The question is: do we as a society want this situation to continue?\u201d The lecturer compared the digital labour platforms with the textile industry. \u201cWe\u2019ve witnessed a number of changes. Some workers in the textile industry are obviously still being exploited, but consumers have become more aware of their working conditions. As a result, they\u2019ve started seeking out sustainable and fair products. It\u2019s quite conceivable this is going to happen in the digital labour market as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the situations are somewhat different\u201d, a student intervened. \u201cWhile the textile industry is characterised by fierce competition, this is a new industry with as yet little competition. So my question would be: how can we change this situation?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPauline Wiersema<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Another student replied: \u201cI think the European Union should regulate platform work more. For instance, the EU could say: we only want to use your services if you offer your ghost workers a decent employment contract. Look, other countries are keen to work with the EU, so it\u2019s not as if the EU doesn\u2019t wield any influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not so sure about that.\u201d His fellow student was less optimistic. \u201cI wonder how much of a say the EU really has. The world is changing, with the emergence of new economies like China. If the EU adopts a firm position on this, commissioning clients will go to China instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Figures<\/h2>

Economy student Ignas found the subject interesting. \u201cThe debate is engaging, but still a bit abstract to me. I\u2019d like to know the figures: how many ghost workers are there in total? How much do they earn, exactly? What are their working hours? What kinds of employment contracts are they on? I have many more questions, so I\u2019m going to delve into this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPauline Wiersema<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Public Administration students Samuel and Sjoerd also followed the debate with interest. \u201cAI will change jobs, so it\u2019s important that we think matters through before that change actually happens\u201d, Samuel said. \u201cAs future public administrators, we must be able to understand and explain how AI is influencing our policies, to name but one example. That\u2019s why I\u2019m so glad that these lectures are providing me with so much background information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a \u2018digital optimist\u2019, Sjoerd is convinced that AI offers many possibilities. \u201cWe still need to find out how to cope with the rapidly expanding use of artificial intelligence, but I hope that in the future AI will take care of unpleasant tasks, allowing us to work less and spend more time on the fun and creative things in life, such as art.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Read more<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t