The micro-workers behind artificial intelligence: Exploring new digital subjects and their precariousness in the world of work

Los micro-trabajadores detrás de la inteligencia artificial: Explorando nuevos sujetos digitales y sus precariedades en el mundo laboral

Juana Torres-Cierpe (), Paola Tubaro () and Antonio Casilli
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Juana Torres-Cierpe: LaborIA - Programme IA - Inria Siège - Inria - Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique
Paola Tubaro: CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - Groupe ENSAE-ENSAI - Groupe des Écoles Nationales d'Économie et Statistique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris, CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - Groupe ENSAE-ENSAI - Groupe des Écoles Nationales d'Économie et Statistique - X - École polytechnique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - Groupe ENSAE-ENSAI - Groupe des Écoles Nationales d'Économie et Statistique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Antonio Casilli: I3 SES - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation de Telecom Paris - Télécom Paris - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - I3 - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, NOS - Numérique, Organisation et Société - I3 SES - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation de Telecom Paris - Télécom Paris - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - I3 - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LACI - Laboratoire d'anthropologie critique interdisciplinaire - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - LAP - Laboratoire d’anthropologie politique – Approches interdisciplinaires et critiques des mondes contemporains, UMR 8177 - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: In digital environments, value production involves not only computer developers and engineers, but a broader range of digital subjects – from users to data workers – whose contributions are often occluded from view. We break down their digital labour into its different forms: classification, monetisation and automation in the case of users; and preparation, verification and impersonation in the case of data workers. Far from a simple succession of predefined mechanical tasks, we show that all these forms of work are complex human activities that harness knowledge, skills, personal commitments, moral judgements, emotional elements and bodily dimensions. When we open the black box of AI, what emerges is a plurality of subjects who, through their digital interactions, reveal intimate aspects of their subjectivities and form an essential—though largely overlooked—part of the value chain that sustains this technology. Therefore, any critical reflection on the regulation of AI and its ethical and social implications must recognise the active role played by these digital subjects as co-producers of value and invisible protagonists of the ongoing technological transformation.

Keywords: Digital labour; Platform work; Micro-work; AI data work; trabajo de datos; microtrabajo; Trabajo de plataforma (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05491713v1
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Published in Rodrigo De La Fabián, Álvaro Jiménez-Molina, Francisco Pizarro Obaid. ¿Somos Sujetos Digitales? Tecnopromesas, Saberes Psi y Digitalización de la Vida Cotidiana, RIL editores, pp.53-80, 2026, 978-956-01-1769-4

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