The Glamorisation of Unpaid Labour: AI and its Influencers

To harness the true potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for sustainability and societal betterment, we need to move away from the goals of racing to mimic human behaviour and prioritising corporate interests, where workers are continuously exploited. The unpaid labour and societal harms which are generated from Digital Value Networks (DVNs) used by companies producing AI needs to be regulated. Unethical data collection and data labelling practices have serious consequences, as evidenced by the case studies reviewed in this short paper, such as with influencer marketing. This paper addresses important neglected areas of study in worker and user data and labeling exploitation practices, where ethical AI could be impactful.