The Work of AI: Mapping Human Labour in the AI Pipeline

This one-day workshop invites researchers and practitioners to map the human labour, in its sites, categories, and characteristics, in the infrastructuring of AI and algorithmic systems. Our concern is with the broadening of the terms with which we articulate and account for human labour in the AI pipeline. We aim to attend to not only the privileged bodies in the production of AI or the harmed bodies in the witnessing and moderation of its harms, but the constellation of mundane labours that make AI systems work the way they work. We consider this labour across sites - from labelling datasets, to red teaming, to the (inevitable) public perception management - and across categories of work - from knowledge work to emotion work, from bodily work to organisational work. Approaching the AI pipeline both as a site of empirical study and critical scrutiny, this workshop promotes a CSCW perspective into the inquiry of the humans, work practices, and politics in the AI pipeline. Taking a reflective turn, the workshop also invites us to consider what we as CSCW researchers - one group of humans active at various parts of the AI pipeline - can do and be challenged by through engaging with AI production.