Turkopticon

Represented @turkopticon.bsky.social with @kristap.bsky.social & @autobotcoop.bsky.social at #CircuitBreakers2025, talking about the real-world challenges of worker-run organizing & how much we’ve learned (sometimes the hard way).

Organizing is tough, but community and honesty make it possible.

What if you had a job that was paid hourly, but between tasks, you just had to wait online, unpaid, yet ready to go at any moment?

This is the reality for many of the people in the U.S. who train AI for multibillion-dollar companies.

@kristap.bsky.social

Despite making critical contributions to the booming AI industry, data workers often report that they aren’t treated like the skilled, valuable workers that they are.

So, from @alphabetworkersunion.org to @turkopticon.bsky.social, data workers are organizing for better pay and working conditions.

Microsoft cancels Israeli spy unit access after tech worker revolt In a stunning and massive development, tech giant Microsoft has announced that it is terminating parts of the Israeli military’s access to proprietary technology that it was using to conduct mass surveillance and targeting of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. “Microsoft told Israeli officials late last week that Unit 8200, the military’s elite spy agency, had violated the company’s terms of service by storing the vast trove of surveillance data in its Azure cloud platform,” the Guardian reports. “The termination is the first known case of a US technology company withdrawing services provided to the Israeli military since the beginning of its war on Gaza.” This major development would not have happened without the joint-investigative work of reporters at The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call exposing Microsoft’s complicity with Unit 8200’s mass-surveillance campaign, but it also would not have happened without the disruptive protests by tech workers within Microsoft. In this panel discussion, we speak with three fired Microsoft tech workers and members of the “No Azure for Apartheid” campaign—Nisreen Jaradat, Julius Shan, and Anna Hattle—about the role workers have played in pressuring Microsoft to end its complicity in Israel’s war crimes. Additional Links/Info: No Azure for Apartheid Instagram and Linktree Maximillian Alvarez, The Nation, “How Microsoft workers helped halt a major contract with the Israeli military” Harry Davies & Yuval Abraham, The Guardian, “Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its technology in mass surveillance of Palestinians” Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “The biggest labor story in the US right now is happening at Microsoft” Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “‘Microsoft is an active partner in the genocide!’: Inside the tech worker revolt for Palestine” Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “Cops violently dismantle Palestine encampment at Microsoft HQ, arrest protestors” Harry Davies & Yuval Abraham, The Guardian, “‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians” Credits: Studio Production: David Hebden Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor

Microsoft cancels Israeli spy unit access after tech worker revolt

In a stunning and massive development, tech giant Microsoft has announced that it is terminating parts of the Israeli military’s access to proprietary technology that it was using to conduct mass surveillance and targeting of Pale

How do you handle the 1.3% error rate?

1/ It’s time to get real about Amazon and AI. Amazon coworkers: sign our open letter below to tell Amazon leadership that we need a more responsible rollout of AI. Everyone else: Send our letter to anyone who works at Amazon or even in the tech industry.
www.amazonclimatejustice.org/open-letter?...

The future of AI is being built on the backs of underpaid workers with no protections. I shared my story in this new report because silence keeps us invisible. #HumansMakeAI #DataWorkersUnite #InvisibleLabor

You can sit at your computer all day waiting for work, unpaid. That’s the hidden cost of keeping AI running.

An excellent report on the often overlooked US dataworker

Thank you @techequity.bsky.social, @alphabetworkersunion.org and @cwaunion.bsky.social for giving them a voice.

Headshot of Brook Hansen

We are so excited to welcome Brook Hansen back to Turkopticon! She brings expertise on platforms like Appen, Outlier, DataAnnotation, Mturk, Prolific, and Click Worker. She will help us reach more workers and we are grateful she's decided to come back to us.

Screen shot of hit submission page with over 1 million approved hits.

Did you know that Turkopticon is worker-run? When we say worker, this is what we mean 👇 Here is organizer Krista Pawloski with over one million hits on Amazon Mechanical Turk. She's still out there in the trenches with #dataworkers everywhere.

When workplaces are considering deploying new technology, how often are the workers themselves part of the process?

Not often enough, despite them being best positioned to advocate for a different and more inclusive approach to tech design, based on their unique expertise.

YouTube video by More Perfect Union You Need to Know This About Prime Day Deals

For years, Prime Day has exacerbated worker injuries.

Instead of cutting back, Amazon doubled the number of Prime Days this month.

One warehouse worker told us, “I’m tired of there being an ambulance at my job site almost every night."

Tech Organizers! Circuit Breakers will be in NYC this year. Oct 18-19. You have until the end of the month to submit a proposal for a session. They are looking for rank and file workers trying to organize.
Hope to see you there!

techworkerscoalition...

Retro computer style message with loading progress bar: “Save the date: Circuit Breakers October 18 to 19 2025 in New York” https://bit.ly/circuitbreakers2025

Circuit Breakers 2025 is now accepting submissions (by July 31st) for workshops, panels, talks, and everything in between!

Learn more at bit.ly/circuitbreakers2025 💥

#labororganizing #techworkers

👀 Former Turkopticon colleagues, Krystal Kauffman & Alexis Chávez have been up to some research, advancing academia and awareness ✨
Data workers love to see research that supports our fight.
Congrats on your research publication.
www.weizenbaum-insti...

When we've collected all of our data, we will share our findings. If you'd like to make sure you are on that list, sign up for our newsletter blog.turkopticon.net?page_id=3969

Major decision out of the Northern District of California. AI training on copyrighted material is fair use under the copyright act. This will have major implications for the AI industry and artists having their work stolen by AI companies.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Screen shot of a survey tile reading "Turkopticon wants to hear from Worers! V2" with survey details below

Look at what we have for you!

Workers, keep your eye out on Mturk and Prolific. We are issuing surveys in small batches at different times to cast a wide net and make sure we are capturing the voice of all workers.

#datawork

All around the world, tech companies in the AI industry are powered by workers who develop, train, test, and maintain AI systems.

But these workers are hidden away behind virtual marketplaces and labyrinthine supply chains.

One of our organizers having a conversation with Angeline Corvaglia from Digital Dominoes about the work that goes into your AI

I have a side hustle training AI and reviewing online ads. Some tasks are random, but as a mom, I love the flexibility. Mom Brook Hansen told BI she's worked on tasks such as chatbot training, ad reviews and voice recordings as a freelance data worker.

Hear dataworker @brookh.bsky.social talk about what this work means to her.

www.businessinsider.com/data-worker-...

Cloudy with a Loss of Spending Control: How Data Centers Are Endangering State Budgets - Good Jobs First Cloudy with a Loss of Spending Control: How Data Centers Are Endangering State Budgets - Good Jobs First

NEW: At least 10 states lose more than $100 million per year in tax revenue to data centers. The loss of revenue is surely worse than we can yet document — of the 32 states with data center tax incentives, 12 fail to disclose even *aggregate* revenue losses.
👇🏾
goodjobsfirst.org/cloudy-with-...

China’s AI boom depends on an army of exploited student interns As part of China’s digital underclass, vocational school students work as data annotators — for low pay and few future prospects.

China’s AI industry depends on exploitation of vocational school students who work as data annotators for low pay with few prospects. restofworld.org/2023/china-a...

BREAKING: The National Treasury Employees Union, representing 150,000 workers, is suing Trump over his executive order to end collective bargaining rights for federal workers.

Amazon Email that reads: Dear Echo Customer, We are reaching out to let you know that the Alexa feature 'Do Not Send Voice Recordings" that you enabled on your supported Echo device(s) will no longer be available beginning March 28th, 2025. This feature allowed compatible Echo devices to process the audio of Alexa requests locally on device. As we continue to expand Alexa's capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon's secure cloud, we have decided to no longer support this feature.

PSA if you have an Echo. They will no longer let you disable voice recordings.
#EthicalAI

If you are a Starbucks worker impacted by the January 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles, you may be eligible to apply for a $500 stipend. Applications are open! Learn More: coworkerfund.org/get-funded/w...

Court rules Trump’s firing of labor board official illegal, saying president is not a king Judge orders reinstatement of Gwynne Wilcox to National Labor Relations Board after her removal by US president

When the president fired Gwynne Wilcox from the @nlrbgov.bsky.social, it essentially shut down the board’s work.

We commend the court’s decision to uphold the integrity and independence of the NLRB by ordering Wilcox to be reinstated. This is a major victory for all workers!

Listen to the people who program AI, it is not ready for this. Far too many errors and ethical concerns still exist.