4 ms·

The Emotional Labor Behind AI Intimacy (2025) [pdf]

70 points by beepbooptheory 8mo ago

Related: https://www.404media.co/ai-is-african-intelligence-the-workers-who-train-ai-are-fighting-back/ https://www.404media.co/ai-is-african-intelligence-the-worke... (https://archive.ph/yS8xb https://archive.ph/yS8xb)

d0able 8mo ago
Would have liked to see a clearer call for action other than "regulation" - what exactly would the author want to regulate and what are the downstream effects?
mbrumlow 8mo ago
> he started his second job as the human labor behind AI sex bots This makes no sense. AI sex bots don’t need humans texting and role playing. I don’t think whoever wrote this article understands what AI is. Note the fist job of describing what was in the video seems like somebody building a AI dataset.
- heraldgeezer 8mo ago
  [flagged]
  - tartuffe78 8mo ago
    You must not see Facebook ads. Every other one is for an "AI Girlfriend" no matter how many I hide.
    - heraldgeezer 8mo ago
      Correct. Never on Facebook, don't have the app. On a browser I always use AdBlock.
    - antonvs 8mo ago
      You’re being targeted, presumably based on your traffic profile. Unless you’re talking about ads actually on Facebook, in which case your problem is that you’re using Facebook.
      - tartuffe78 8mo ago
        Yea I use facebook marketplace to sell stuf
- kristopolous 8mo ago
  Jason certainly does [1]. The commercial bots seamlessly traverse between AI, auto-respond and human. It's very much an ensemble method. That's why people pay for it over just downloading an abliterated model from hf with system prompt hacking. Go and try it, the SOTA of role-playing models still have a lot to be desired [1] https://computerhistory.org/profile/jason-koebler/ https://computerhistory.org/profile/jason-koebler/
  - Ukv 8mo ago
    > The commercial bots seamlessly traverse between AI, auto-respond and human. It's very much an ensemble method. This seems unlikely to me, given it'd increase costs and the response times would make it obvious. The messages presented in the original source appear to be people expecting to be talking to a real person, likely on a dating app. The relation to AI is only speculative, and mostly in the direction of "my messages may be used to train a chatbot to replace my job of deceiving people" - which is plausible. > That's why people pay for it over just downloading an abliterated model from hf with system prompt hacking. I'd assume convenience, fine-tuning, and using a larger model than it's feasible for most people to run locally.
    - kristopolous 7mo ago
      He goes over his coverage on the latest 404 podcast. I agree it seems like it's only this one man that's making the claims though. I looked for other people reporting the thing online but I couldn't find it it all tracks back to this one guy that Jason interviewed Fails the double source test
  - amazingwoww 8mo ago
    [dead]
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
- dang 8mo ago
  (We've since changed the URL from https://www.404media.co/ai-is-african-intelligence-the-workers-who-train-ai-are-fighting-back/ https://www.404media.co/ai-is-african-intelligence-the-worke... to the essay it references, which was written by Michael Geoffrey Asia himself and goes much deeper into the topic. I've put a reference to the profile article in the toptext.)
- 3rodents 8mo ago
  “Actually Indians” is a meme for a reason https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2025/the-company-whose--ai--was-actually-700-humans-in-india.html https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2025/the-company-whose--ai--wa... The company whose ‘AI’ was actually 700 humans in India https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actually-1-000-people-in-india-2024-4 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actual... Amazon's Just Walk Out technology relies on hundreds of workers in India watching you shop https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/former-nate-ceo-human-workers-instead-of-ai-fraud/ https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/former-nate-ceo-human-worke... Former nate CEO who used human workers instead of AI allegedly defrauded investors lured by new tech of millions
renewiltord 8mo ago
Phone sex line guy upset he had to do phone sex. What.
klueinc 8mo ago
Appaled at the lack of empathy for labellers from other comments here.
- OGEnthusiast 8mo ago
  [dead]
- Beestie 8mo ago
  I read the 404 article and its nauseating - the story of the young man from Africa is very unpleasant. We all know the pr0n industry is a thing but this is off the rails.
- guitarlimeo 8mo ago
  Yeah same. Anything seems to go if it means the next version of $HOT_LLM_MODEL is improved.
- fluoridation 8mo ago
  Good, good. Very virtuous of you. What exactly are you asking for? Just some commiserative platitudes? I don't think anyone is under the false impression that these are awesome jobs, but the fact is, they are jobs. The people doing them are getting paid to do them. Why would data labellers be more deserving of sympathy than any other type of office worker?
  - klueinc 8mo ago
    Calling traumatizing data work a 'normal office job' is a lazy reach that confuses a paycheck with an excuse to ignore what it actually does to people.
    - fluoridation 8mo ago
      No one in this thread has used the word "normal" besides you, so you're responding to something no one said. I called it an office job. Are you contending that it's not one? Setting that aside, maybe this type of job in particular is traumatizing. And? What do you want done about it?
deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]

d0able 8mo ago

Would have liked to see a clearer call for action other than "regulation" - what exactly would the author want to regulate and what are the downstream effects?

mbrumlow 8mo ago

> he started his second job as the human labor behind AI sex bots This makes no sense. AI sex bots don’t need humans texting and role playing. I don’t think whoever wrote this article understands what AI is. Note the fist job of describing what was in the video seems like somebody building a AI dataset.

heraldgeezer 8mo ago
[flagged]
- tartuffe78 8mo ago
  You must not see Facebook ads. Every other one is for an "AI Girlfriend" no matter how many I hide.
  - heraldgeezer 8mo ago
    Correct. Never on Facebook, don't have the app. On a browser I always use AdBlock.
  - antonvs 8mo ago
    You’re being targeted, presumably based on your traffic profile. Unless you’re talking about ads actually on Facebook, in which case your problem is that you’re using Facebook.
    - tartuffe78 8mo ago
      Yea I use facebook marketplace to sell stuf
kristopolous 8mo ago
Jason certainly does [1]. The commercial bots seamlessly traverse between AI, auto-respond and human. It's very much an ensemble method. That's why people pay for it over just downloading an abliterated model from hf with system prompt hacking. Go and try it, the SOTA of role-playing models still have a lot to be desired [1] https://computerhistory.org/profile/jason-koebler/ https://computerhistory.org/profile/jason-koebler/
- Ukv 8mo ago
  > The commercial bots seamlessly traverse between AI, auto-respond and human. It's very much an ensemble method. This seems unlikely to me, given it'd increase costs and the response times would make it obvious. The messages presented in the original source appear to be people expecting to be talking to a real person, likely on a dating app. The relation to AI is only speculative, and mostly in the direction of "my messages may be used to train a chatbot to replace my job of deceiving people" - which is plausible. > That's why people pay for it over just downloading an abliterated model from hf with system prompt hacking. I'd assume convenience, fine-tuning, and using a larger model than it's feasible for most people to run locally.
  - kristopolous 7mo ago
    He goes over his coverage on the latest 404 podcast. I agree it seems like it's only this one man that's making the claims though. I looked for other people reporting the thing online but I couldn't find it it all tracks back to this one guy that Jason interviewed Fails the double source test
- amazingwoww 8mo ago
  [dead]
deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]
dang 8mo ago
(We've since changed the URL from https://www.404media.co/ai-is-african-intelligence-the-workers-who-train-ai-are-fighting-back/ https://www.404media.co/ai-is-african-intelligence-the-worke... to the essay it references, which was written by Michael Geoffrey Asia himself and goes much deeper into the topic. I've put a reference to the profile article in the toptext.)
3rodents 8mo ago
“Actually Indians” is a meme for a reason https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2025/the-company-whose--ai--was-actually-700-humans-in-india.html https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2025/the-company-whose--ai--wa... The company whose ‘AI’ was actually 700 humans in India https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actually-1-000-people-in-india-2024-4 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actual... Amazon's Just Walk Out technology relies on hundreds of workers in India watching you shop https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/former-nate-ceo-human-workers-instead-of-ai-fraud/ https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/former-nate-ceo-human-worke... Former nate CEO who used human workers instead of AI allegedly defrauded investors lured by new tech of millions

renewiltord 8mo ago

Phone sex line guy upset he had to do phone sex. What.

klueinc 8mo ago

Appaled at the lack of empathy for labellers from other comments here.

OGEnthusiast 8mo ago
[dead]
Beestie 8mo ago
I read the 404 article and its nauseating - the story of the young man from Africa is very unpleasant. We all know the pr0n industry is a thing but this is off the rails.
guitarlimeo 8mo ago
Yeah same. Anything seems to go if it means the next version of $HOT_LLM_MODEL is improved.
fluoridation 8mo ago
Good, good. Very virtuous of you. What exactly are you asking for? Just some commiserative platitudes? I don't think anyone is under the false impression that these are awesome jobs, but the fact is, they are jobs. The people doing them are getting paid to do them. Why would data labellers be more deserving of sympathy than any other type of office worker?
- klueinc 8mo ago
  Calling traumatizing data work a 'normal office job' is a lazy reach that confuses a paycheck with an excuse to ignore what it actually does to people.
  - fluoridation 8mo ago
    No one in this thread has used the word "normal" besides you, so you're responding to something no one said. I called it an office job. Are you contending that it's not one? Setting that aside, maybe this type of job in particular is traumatizing. And? What do you want done about it?

deleted 8mo ago

[deleted]