SMRTR AIMar 12, 2026Hacker News

'AI is African intelligence': The workers who train AI are fighting back

SMRTR summary

Kenyan workers who spend hours daily labeling disturbing content and operating AI chatbots for major tech companies are organizing to fight exploitative working conditions that cause severe mental health issues including PTSD and insomnia. Michael Geoffrey Asia, who developed psychological problems from annotating explicit content and role-playing as AI sex bots, now leads the Data Labelers Association demanding better pay, mental health support, and improved benefits for workers earning just dollars per day while powering billion-dollar AI companies like Meta and OpenAI.

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