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\t\t\tIllustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins \/ Futurism. Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re one of the 28 percent of Americans<\/a> who\u2019ve shared an intimate relationship with an AI chatbot, we might have some bad news.<\/p>\n Freshly reported testimony from the Data Worker\u2019s Inquiry \u2014 an international research initiative<\/a> empowering gig workers to document their industries \u2014 revealed stunning details behind one of the fastest growing consumer niches in the AI sector.<\/p>\n During a period of desperation in which he struggled to find a job in his trained field of global aviation, a Kenyan man named Michael Geoffrey Asia writes for the initiative<\/a> that he was introduced to the world of data labeling and chat moderation. In Asia\u2019s case, the \u201cchats\u201d turned out to be \u201cromantic and intimate conversations on platforms I\u2019d never heard of.\u201d<\/p>\n Though it was far from what he had planned to do after graduating from aviation school, he took on a job as a \u201ctext chat operator\u201d with the Australian firm New Media Services in order to feed his family. He made his home, he writes, in the Mathare slums of Nairobi, and it was all he could do to keep a roof over their heads.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I didn\u2019t know was that the role would require me to assume multiple fabricated identities, and use pseudo profiles created by the company to engage in intimate and explicit conversations with lonely men and women,\u201d Asia writes.<\/p>\n To do the job, Asia had to assume various identities, taking on lengthy backstories in order to play the role of \u201cchatbot\u201d for someone on the other side of the world. \u201cSometimes I would be assigned a conversation that had been ongoing for several days and had to continue it smoothly so the user wouldn\u2019t realize the person responding had changed,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n In any given work day, Asia would assume \u201cthree to five different personas\u201d simultaneously, all of varying genders. He was paid per message, a flat rate of $0.05 per, which had to meet a required character count. He also had to type at least 40 words a minute, and keep up with a dashboard displaying the total number of messages sent.<\/p>\n \u201cFalling behind on metrics could lead to warnings, reduced assignments, or termination,\u201d Asia explained.<\/p>\n The work was emotionally exhausting, with chat users confiding intimate details about their real-life relationships, as well as their own emotional trauma, falsely believing they were talking to an unfeeling AI chatbot. <\/p>\n \u201cMy faith taught me that love should be real, intimacy sacred, and that deception was destructive to both the liar and the deceived,\u201d Asia wrote. \u201cYet here I was, professionally deceiving vulnerable people who were genuinely looking for connection \u2014 taking their money, their trust, their hope, and giving them nothing real in return.\u201d<\/p>\n In order to hide his demeaning job, Asia used a cover story with his family: that he was a remote IT worker, taking tickets to fix broken servers. \u201cLittle did they know that I had just told another man, \u2018I love you,’\u201d Asia wrote.<\/p>\n There was also a non-disclosure agreement, a mandatory contract that meant Asia couldn\u2019t tell his loved ones even if he wanted to. \u201cHow do you explain that you get paid to tell strangers you love them while your real family sleeps three meters away?\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n Asia\u2019s story of work-life struggle is heartbreaking, and he\u2019s far from alone. Though exact numbers are hard to find thanks to the secretive nature<\/a> of tech subcontracting, estimates suggest there are between 154 and 435 million gig workers<\/a> engaged in online work. Not all of them are doing Asia\u2019s job, though high-stress, low-pay jobs like AI data labeling, content moderation, and text chat operation tend to be staffed by workers from underdeveloped African, South American, and Southeastern Asian nations.<\/p>\n So the next time you feel a connection with a chatbot, remember: you might just be falling for an underpaid worker\u2019s scripted lie.<\/p>\n