Big Tech has sold us the illusion that artificial intelligence is a frictionless technology
that will bring wealth and prosperity to humanity. But hidden beneath this smooth surface lies
the grim reality of a precarious global workforce of millions that labour under often appalling
conditions to make AI possible. Feeding the Machine presents an urgent riveting investigation
of the intricate network of organisations that maintain this exploitative system revealing the
untold truth of AI. Based on hundreds of interviews and thousands of hours of fieldwork over
more than a decade this book shows us the lives of the workers often deliberately concealed
from view and the systems of power that determine their future. It shows how AI is an
extraction machine that churns through ever-larger datasets and feeds off humanity's labour and
collective intelligence to power its algorithms. Feeding the Machine is a call to arms against
this exploitative system and details what we need to do individually and collectively to
fight for a more just digital future.
