AI World - the forgotten faces of AI

Artificial intelligence is now emerging as a technical and cultural revolution. But behind this abundance lies another reality: that of the millions of precarious workers, scattered all over the world.

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2 juillet 2026

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If the product is free, someone is paying the price..

Artificial intelligence stands today as a technical and cultural revolution. Symbolizing progress, it is presented as the future of our societies, promising efficiency, innovation, and growth. But behind this abundance hides another reality. That of millions of precarious workers, scattered around the world, who produce and correct the data necessary for the algorithms to function. They are the ones who train the models, filter violent content, and clean databases.

Their work is indispensable, but their rights are ignored

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Our actions

Action 1: The Duty of Vigilance to hold ordering companies accountable

AI relies on a global value chain. The companies that purchase these services have obligations. The OECD guidelines are clear: the duty of vigilance follows the value, not the sector. We are initiating an action based on the French Duty of Vigilance Law …

Action 2: Coming soon…

This upcoming action will focus on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to denounce the illicit collection and abusive use of workers’ personal data (work pacing, geolocation, task history) as tools for algorithmic surveillance. Protection must no longer be limited to users alone, but must extend to the data workers who make AI possible.

The human behind the machine

The platformization of the economy is expanding massively:

500 million workers are affected worldwide.
28 million platform workers are working in Europe today.
This number could reach 43 million tomorrow in Europe.
In France, about 600,000 workers use a digital platform to work.

The reality of data work: an AI built on exploitation

AI is neither magical nor immaterial. It is human workers who train the models, filter violent content, and clean the databases. Behind connected or physical AI, there are employees who see everything.

Yet, the activity of these « clickworkers » or data workers (such as data annotators and content moderators) often takes place in countries with weak social protection. This subcontracting, which externalizes data preparation, currently takes two forms:

BPO (Business Process Outsourcing): A traditional approach that consists, much like the textile industry, of entrusting part of the activity to third-party companies, most often located in the Global South.
Platform work: A more recent model where millions of vulnerable people log on daily to process these data.

These complex labor arrangements generate significant negative impacts on data workers, who are exposed to multiple abuses:

Low remuneration, often paid per micro-task.
Heavy workloads and psychosocial risks related to exposure to sometimes traumatizing and harmful content.
Total lack of support, precarious working conditions, algorithmic management practices, discrimination, and violations of trade union freedoms.

The hidden trauma of content moderation

Behind the term « content moderation » lies a harsh reality. To ensure that AI systems and social networks remain safe for the public, these invisible workers act as a human shield. They spend their days reviewing graphic violence, hate speech, and deeply traumatizing images. Coupled with strict algorithmic management—where software tracks their every click, accuracy, and pause—this exposure leads to severe psychosocial risks, mental health crises, and precarious living conditions, with limited access to effective labor protections.

A systemic example in Kenya

Recently, over 1,100 Kenyan workers participating in AI training for subcontractors of major tech companies were brutally dismissed with only six days’ notice. This dehumanization pushes many trade unions to demand fair treatment. Their work is indispensable, but their rights are ignored.

Our fight : transforming justice into precedent

Based on this observation, Intérêt à Agir (IAA), a collective of legal professionals committed to social and environmental justice, has decided to take action.

In partnership with DiPLab, Reversing.Works, the trade union federation CGT-FAPT, the NGO Noyb, as well as the African organizations Oversight Lab Africa (OLA) and the Data Labelers Association (DLA) from Kenya, IAA is launching two major and unprecedented legal actions. Through this collective, multidisciplinary, and transnational coalition, we are sending a clear message to trade unions and civil society: collective action is the engine of change!

Replacing human dignity at the heart of digital technology

An AI built on exploitation is not progress: it is an injustice. The triumph of technology must not come at the expense of humans, and science cannot evade the law.

AI will be what we make of it. Let’s choose an AI that is clean for future generations and decent for everyone, including those who produce it.

These cases are not simple legal battles. They are a democratic lever to transform invisibility into recognition and indignation into obligation.

Our conviction is strong: there is no inevitability. The law can rebalance the scales of power. Our companies can and must innovate while respecting fundamental human rights.

This is the narrative we carry: that of a technology placed within the framework of social justice and the rule of law. That of a society that chooses to emancipate rather than exploit.

Support the action of Intérêt à Agir to help, through the law, shed light on the human dimension of AI and the exploitation of data workers, making the law a lever for social and digital justice.

To go further

Read the DipLab report

Our partners

To face tech giants, Intérêt à Agir has built an unprecedented international and interdisciplinary coalition.

Our Financial Supporters: This project is made possible through the co-funding and support of the European AI & Society Fund (EAISF), the Digital Freedom Fund (DFF), and IAA’s own funds.

Our Strategic Partners:

- DiPLab (Polytechnic Institute of Paris): Our academic partner, leading the research and documenting the structural labor arrangements within AI supply chains.
- Noyb (Austria): European experts in digital rights and GDPR enforcement.
- CGT-FAPT (France): A major French trade union federation defending workers’ rights.
- Data Labelers Association (DLA) & Oversight Lab Africa (OLA) (Kenya): Our crucial on-the-ground partners mobilizing and protecting data workers in Kenya.
- Reversing.Works: Providing reverse engineering services and technical expertise.