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Data Enrichment Work and AI Labor in Latin America and the Caribbean

Gianna Williams, Maya De Los Santos, Alexandra To, Saiph Savage

TL;DR

This paper investigates crowdwork in Latin America and the Caribbean via a bilingual Toloka survey of 100 workers across 16 countries, revealing pride and family-backed financial independence alongside isolation and limited peer collaboration. It situates these findings within digital colonialism and gender dynamics, arguing for decolonized, region-specific HCI designs and tools to empower workers. The study contributes novel regional insights to HCI and outlines design implications for social-connection tools and resistance-oriented interfaces in the Global South. Practically, the work informs platform design and policy discussions to address inequities in online labor and to support regional worker empowerment.

Abstract

The global AI surge demands crowdworkers from diverse languages and cultures. They are pivotal in labeling data for enabling global AI systems. Despite global significance, research has primarily focused on understanding the perspectives and experiences of US and India crowdworkers, leaving a notable gap. To bridge this, we conducted a survey with 100 crowdworkers across 16 Latin American and Caribbean countries. We discovered that these workers exhibited pride and respect for their digital labor, with strong support and admiration from their families. Notably, crowd work was also seen as a stepping stone to financial and professional independence. Surprisingly, despite wanting more connection, these workers also felt isolated from peers and doubtful of others' labor quality. They resisted collaboration and gender-based tools, valuing gender-neutrality. Our work advances HCI understanding of Latin American and Caribbean crowdwork, offering insights for digital resistance tools for the region.

Data Enrichment Work and AI Labor in Latin America and the Caribbean

TL;DR

This paper investigates crowdwork in Latin America and the Caribbean via a bilingual Toloka survey of 100 workers across 16 countries, revealing pride and family-backed financial independence alongside isolation and limited peer collaboration. It situates these findings within digital colonialism and gender dynamics, arguing for decolonized, region-specific HCI designs and tools to empower workers. The study contributes novel regional insights to HCI and outlines design implications for social-connection tools and resistance-oriented interfaces in the Global South. Practically, the work informs platform design and policy discussions to address inequities in online labor and to support regional worker empowerment.

Abstract

The global AI surge demands crowdworkers from diverse languages and cultures. They are pivotal in labeling data for enabling global AI systems. Despite global significance, research has primarily focused on understanding the perspectives and experiences of US and India crowdworkers, leaving a notable gap. To bridge this, we conducted a survey with 100 crowdworkers across 16 Latin American and Caribbean countries. We discovered that these workers exhibited pride and respect for their digital labor, with strong support and admiration from their families. Notably, crowd work was also seen as a stepping stone to financial and professional independence. Surprisingly, despite wanting more connection, these workers also felt isolated from peers and doubtful of others' labor quality. They resisted collaboration and gender-based tools, valuing gender-neutrality. Our work advances HCI understanding of Latin American and Caribbean crowdwork, offering insights for digital resistance tools for the region.
Paper Structure (22 sections, 2 figures)

This paper contains 22 sections, 2 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Problems Facing Crowdworkers Globally
  4. Colonialism and Crowd Work
  5. Methods
  6. Survey Design
  7. Recruitment
  8. Data Analysis
  9. Results
  10. Participants
  11. Worker Alienation and Lack of Worker Connections.
  12. Respect for Crowd Work.
  13. Crowd Work and Gender
  14. Crowd Work Powering Financial and Professional Independence.
  15. Discussion
  16. ...and 7 more sections

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: A heatmap of participants' geographical location.
  • Figure 2: Overview of workers gender and their: A) marital status; B) attitudes towards seeking connections; C) usage of tools for connections.