Brazilian Amazon Mechanical turkers

January 11, 2020



“We definitely need to be heard. I think a lot is said about AI, but little about us [AMTurkers], which made this area and its applications feasible. I exist and I want you and others to know that”.

“I want more jobs so I can live my life in style”.

“Flexibility is the future”.

“I strongly believe in artificial intelligence and it is an honor to be able to help in a certain way”.

“I have adhered to a working model that will be common in the coming years”.

“One day I wondered how interesting it would be if I could receive not only cash payments but courses, to make me smarter and thus contribute to an even better technology. It would be nice if I were seen as a teacher – not that a teacher is highly valued in Brazil, but it should. A teacher of machines...”.

Some phrases from Brazilian remote workers who work on the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform and, among other services, train the so-called Artificial Intelligence. For a few months, we approached these workers to understand their work routine, including difficulties in receiving their payments directly, growing mobilization via WhatsApp groups and a desire to be heard. More in this paper published inm the special issue of the journal Contracampo, organized by Rafael Grohmann and Jack Qiu.

Above are some of the stickers exchanged between workers on WhatsApp.