News commentary
How AI Hype Masks the Exploitation of African Workers
AI hype is the next chapter in the colonial playbook. It reframes the exploitation of African digital workers as “innovation” and is a tool of power wielded by profiteers of colonial extractivism in the digital age. It functions as a carefully crafted cover story by disguising appropriation in the language of “progress.”
We know this is true because, as investigative journalists, we spent eight months chasing the wrong story—more on this later.
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On top of a failing business model, newsrooms must navigate the powerful — and not fully reliable — new capabilities of artificial intelligence and the deployment of large language models.
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