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The Human Labor Powering AI Engines : 1A As anxieties over automation mount, AI is already responsible for the employment of millions of workers globally.

From chatbots to text-to-image generators, AI relies on human workers labeling and annotating the millions of images and words it references.

But the work of feeding information to AI can be tedious, with unreliable pay and few opportunities for growth.

We discuss the workforce powering AI and Congress' plans to regulate the industry.

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The Human Labor Powering AI Engines

The Human Labor Powering AI Engines

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A photo taken in Manta, near Turin, shows a computer screen with the home page of the artificial intelligence OpenAI web site, displaying its chatGPT robot. MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images

A photo taken in Manta, near Turin, shows a computer screen with the home page of the artificial intelligence OpenAI web site, displaying its chatGPT robot.

MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images

You've seen the headlines. Artificial Intelligence is taking over jobs. But as anxieties over automation mount, AI is already responsible for the employment of millions of workers globally.

From chatbots to text-to-image generators, AI relies on human workers labeling and annotating the millions of images and words it references. But the work of feeding information to AI can be tedious, with unreliable pay and few opportunities for growth.

So what do we know about this workforce? And as Congress moves to regulate AI, how are the industry's gig workers being considered?

Joining us for the conversation is Sarah Roberts. Sarah is a professor of informational systems and director of the Center for Critical Internet Inquiry at the University of California, Los Angeles. Also with us is Dylan Baker. Dylan is a research engineer at The Distributed AI Research Institute.

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