Hundreds of Google AI Workers Were Fired Amid Fight Over Working Conditions (theguardian.com) 48
Last week the Guardian reported on "thousands of AI workers contracted for Google through Japanese conglomerate Hitachi's GlobalLogic to rate and moderate the output of Google's AI products, including its flagship chatbot Gemini... and its summaries of search results, AI Overviews."
"AI isn't magic; it's a pyramid scheme of human labor," said Adio Dinika, a researcher at the Distributed AI Research Institute based in Bremen, Germany. "These raters are the middle rung: invisible, essential and expendable...." Ten of Google's AI trainers the Guardian spoke to said they have grown disillusioned with their jobs because they work in siloes, face tighter and tighter deadlines, and feel they are putting out a product that's not safe for users... In May 2023, a contract worker for Appen submitted a letter to the US Congress that the pace imposed on him and others would make Google Bard, Gemini's predecessor, a "faulty" and "dangerous" product
This week Google laid off 200 of those moderating contractors, reports Wired. "These workers, who often are hired because of their specialist knowledge, had to have either a master's or a PhD to join the super rater program, and typically include writers, teachers, and people from creative fields." Workers still at the company claim they are increasingly concerned that they are being set up to replace themselves. According to internal documents viewed by WIRED, GlobalLogic seems to be using these human raters to train the Google AI system that could automatically rate the responses, with the aim of replacing them with AI. At the same time, the company is also finding ways to get rid of current employees as it continues to hire new workers. In July, GlobalLogic made it mandatory for its workers in Austin, Texas, to return to office, according to a notice seen by WIRED...
Some contractors attempted to unionize earlier this year but claim those efforts were quashed. Now they allege that the company has retaliated against them. Two workers have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging they were unfairly fired, one due to bringing up wage transparency issues, and the other for advocating for himself and his coworkers. "These individuals are employees of GlobalLogic or their subcontractors, not Alphabet," Courtenay Mencini, a Google spokesperson, said in a statement...
"Globally, other AI contract workers are fighting back and organizing for better treatment and pay," the article points out, noting that content moderators from around the world facing similar issues formed the Global Trade Union Alliance of Content Moderators which includes workers from Kenya, Turkey, and Colombia.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader mspohr for sharing the news.
This week Google laid off 200 of those moderating contractors, reports Wired. "These workers, who often are hired because of their specialist knowledge, had to have either a master's or a PhD to join the super rater program, and typically include writers, teachers, and people from creative fields." Workers still at the company claim they are increasingly concerned that they are being set up to replace themselves. According to internal documents viewed by WIRED, GlobalLogic seems to be using these human raters to train the Google AI system that could automatically rate the responses, with the aim of replacing them with AI. At the same time, the company is also finding ways to get rid of current employees as it continues to hire new workers. In July, GlobalLogic made it mandatory for its workers in Austin, Texas, to return to office, according to a notice seen by WIRED...
Some contractors attempted to unionize earlier this year but claim those efforts were quashed. Now they allege that the company has retaliated against them. Two workers have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging they were unfairly fired, one due to bringing up wage transparency issues, and the other for advocating for himself and his coworkers. "These individuals are employees of GlobalLogic or their subcontractors, not Alphabet," Courtenay Mencini, a Google spokesperson, said in a statement...
"Globally, other AI contract workers are fighting back and organizing for better treatment and pay," the article points out, noting that content moderators from around the world facing similar issues formed the Global Trade Union Alliance of Content Moderators which includes workers from Kenya, Turkey, and Colombia.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader mspohr for sharing the news.
Nothing to see here (Score:2)
Two counts of nothing. First the AC count. FP was just another AC brain fart. NOT a case where anonymity is justified. That would be if someone on the inside wanted to provide some interesting information on the terminations. In this case that would be someone inside cancerous google or Hitachi.
Other count of "nothing to see here" is the Japanese news. At least if it had been a featured story on NHK then I would have noticed it. Possible it will break today, and if that happens I should thank Slashdot for c
AI Moderation? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Would have been a better FP, and I can even see a derivative joke:
"But first they use the AI to decide which stuff is "confidential and important" and that stuff is not shown to the contractors, but only moderated by "politically reliable" insiders. (Yes, the double entendre is deliberate. But I bet some folks around here won't even see it.)
Workers still at the company claim they are increa (Score:5, Interesting)
Isn't the entire point? I mean, seriously, the entire point? Did they not know that when they were hired? How do people that clueless survive without a keeper?
Re:Workers still at the company claim they are inc (Score:4, Insightful)
Interesting that they were using human moderation but now feel that their AI is good enough (cheap enough) to do the job.
I take that this is just more enshitification.
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Either that, or they feel the bubble is about to burst and they're cutting their losses early. Hard to tell, with Google, if they're being cynical capitalist assholes or gobbling down their own hype. They do both, often at the same time.
Re:Workers still at the company claim they are inc (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact that they're training AI with another AI would point towards them getting high on their own supply. So high they forgot about GIGO, so this probably isn't being pushed by engineers.
You'd think that even the suits would be familiar with the phrase "model collapse" though. It's new and cool.
Re: Workers still at the company claim they are in (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Workers still at the company claim they are inc (Score:5, Interesting)
So, no, they did not know when they were hired. The conclusion was that once profits were threatened, quality measures plummeted.
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I read the article. The gal being interviewed said the job description was vague, then they bait and switched her into content moderation, essentially
And she immediately quite because nobody sensible would tolerate that kind of lies from an employer. Right? No? She chose. Choices have consequences.
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I bet you always blame the victims until you are one, and then suddenly it is everyone's fault but yours.
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Maybe real intelligence is also artificial (Score:3)
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Curators of Corporate Culture Protest (CCCP) (Score:1)
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While I want Funny, I don't get the joke. Care to clarify?
(Charitable assumption is that you were going for FP but the time pressure got to you.)
Shanen? (Score:1)
It was about unions (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Those subject matter expert jobs at Google probably pay a lot better than the tenure track at a university. For awhile there it might have been a good gig.
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"Right Wing Media"? I wonder if Fox News is a union shop? I've heard people on Fox News talk about unions for decades, I literally have no idea what you mean by "You're not even allowed to say the word Union anymore in Media. The right wing media just won't allow you to use certain words."
And "Just like they won't allow you to quote Charlie Kirk"? Who's stopping you - of course, there's quoting someone by saying exactly what they said, and then there's the "let me re-phrase what Charlie Kirk said so you wil
Re: It was about unions (Score:2)
He said a lot of stupid shit but not many of us are racist enough to latch onto it and make it part of our identities.
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DEI -is- racism
Factually, it is something being done to counter racism. But racists like you are allergic to facts.
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It could have something to do with at least one of these workers reporting to Congress that they were working on a "faulty and dangerous product". If people are talking like that publicly, then it gives Google all the incentive in the world to lay off some of the more vocal ones. A union would certainly prevent some of those layoffs, of course, but they haven't actually formed one yet.
Self-licking ice cream cone... (Score:3)
"...Workers still at the company claim they are increasingly concerned that they are being set up to replace themselves. According to internal documents viewed by WIRED, GlobalLogic seems to be using these human raters to train the Google AI system that could automatically rate the responses, with the aim of replacing them with AI."
So, the idea is that eventually the AI decides whether its responses to a prompt is accurate or not. Net result is that the AI responses go off into Lalaland without checking against anything real. Eventually, when the AI's training gets to the point where it is trained primarily from other AI generated text, the AI text will have no tether to the real world at all.
Might be interesting to see what comes out once it's no longer constrained by logic or reality...
Re: Self-licking ice cream cone... (Score:1)
Contracting (Score:4, Insightful)
These individuals are employees of GlobalLogic or their subcontractors, not Alphabet," Courtenay Mencini, a Google spokesperson, said in a statement...
Just gotta contract out the unpopular parts and then don't have to be responsible for any of the blame. Definitely not an industry wide issue... [nbcnews.com]
Russian nesting dolls of scams (Score:3)
The current crop of large correlation models being marketed as "AI" appears to be nothing but a Russian nesting doll of scams, with the difference from a piece of Russian artwork being the doll is normally displayed on an equally solid end table whereas "AI" is floating on an aerogel of baloney that is simultaneously rotting, melting in the sun, and being eaten by rats.
Oh yes, let's not forget the massive theft if the work of others that forms the basis of "LLM" "AI".
Re: (Score:2)
Mod parent Funny, but I think the humor is at a level that will sail over the moderators' heads. Assuming they have heads and Slashdot hasn't adopted a policy of giving all the mod points to AI accounts. Slashdot could use a reverse CAPTCHA where you have to prove you're not human before you can have any mod points to bestow.
For my next failure to be funny, consider the threat of learning not to think like a machine by learning not to think about any question the machine won't answer. Combination of "Nothin
Low level customer service jobs have been replaced (Score:2)
I can tell you that if I contact a company I hit a chatbot first and then if that doesn't work I hit a more advanced and more computationally intensive chatbot. I don't know how far up the ladder I would have to do to speak to a person but I suspect it's probably three layers at least.
Also if you're selling something scammy which a lot of sales is about selling
Temporary workaround (Score:4, Interesting)
Current LLMs make stupid mistakes and produce output that is sometimes dangerous or politically incorrect
The makers can't fix the underlying design yet, but the market demands products now, so they use human checkers
I'm not surprised to read that they are treated poorly
And yeah, it's a temporary fix until the tech is perfected
Re:Temporary workaround (Score:4, Interesting)
The makers can't fix the underlying design yet,
What makes you think they can be fixed?
I know that "AI Workers" means something different (Score:3)
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Username checks out. Certainly, that post would have been flunked by any 6th grade teacher, as it makes no sense, and is incoherent.
After millenia of evolution... (Score:2)
contractors are disposable.... (Score:3)