Rafael Grohmann, CLCF co-lead, gave a talk at the Data Workers’ Inquiry Speaker Series on November 11, 2024. The roundtable, entitled “Who else does data work?” analyzed the impacts of generative AI on labour and examined how professionals in cultural fields—including translators, artists, and writers—are increasingly finding their work being used as training data without compensation. The speakers were John Lopez (Writers Guild Association), Alex Minshall (Guerilla Media Collective), Oscar Araya (Arte es Etica), Rafael Grohmann (CLCF/ University of Toronto), Alex Hannah (DAIR), with moderation by Milagros Miceli (Data Workers’ Inquiry, Weizenbaum Institute).

During his talk, Grohmann explained the importance of thinking about how data work has been unpaid and underpaid in the culture, media and arts sectors, and what the broader geopolitical impacts are. He mentioned the importance of considering global production networks of AI. One example was how agreements that may be fair to Hollywood actors can undermine the labour of voice actors in countries like Brazil. He also discussed his ongoing research with writers, and their learning processes in relation to the meanings of AI.

The roundtable can be accessed on the DAIR Institute website.

Data Workers’ Inquiry is a community-based research project in which data workers independently research their respective workplaces. The community researchers determine the direction and focus of the research so that it is aligned with the needs of the workers and serves to build countervailing power in the respective workplaces, but are supported by a core team of trained qualitative researchers. This repository is a valuable resource for researchers, journalists and policy makers seeking first-hand accounts of data work, as well as for other data workers who want to learn about shared struggles and strategies of resistance.