Abstract

Contemporary automation through AI entails a substantial amount of behind-the-scenes human labour, which is often both invisibilised and underpaid. Since invisible labour, including labelling and maintenance work, is an integral part of contemporary AI systems, it remains important to sensitise users to its role. We suggest that this could be done through explainable AI (XAI) design, particularly feminist intersectional XAI. We propose the method of cartography, which stems from feminist intersectional research, to draw out a systemic perspective of AI and include dimensions of AI that pertain to invisible labour.

Workshop abstract

Industry and media have long represented automation as a harbinger of development and convenience in different areas of life. An anxious prospect to some, automation systems promise “progress” and profitability to others by conjuring corporate computational futures. What remains behind the scenes of these predictions and imaginaries of automation is the invisible human labor of global ghost workers caring for, maintaining, and repairing technologies. Invisible but irreplaceable, computation performed by humans in precarious conditions fills gaps that computer technologies lack skills and sensibility for. In this hybrid workshop, we ask who the “ghosts” are in the machines. The workshop will address the ghostly presence of humans and human labor in automation and its challenges to HCI research and design.