"The move comes amid an ongoing fight over pay and working conditions, according to workers who spoke to WIRED. Most raters working at GlobalLogic are based in the US and deal with English-language content. Just as content moderators help purge and classify content on social media, these workers use their expertise, skill, and judgment to teach chatbots and other AI products, including Google's search summaries feature called AI Overviews -the right responses on a wide range of subjects."
""I was just cut off," says Andrew Lauzon, who received an email with the news of his termination on August 15. "I asked for a reason, and they said ramp-down on the project-whatever that means." He joined GlobalLogic in March 2024, where his work ranged from rating AI outputs to coming up with a variety of prompts to feed into the model."
More than 200 contractors who evaluated and improved Google's AI products, including Gemini and AI Overviews, were laid off without warning during at least two rounds last month. The contractors, employed by GlobalLogic and other outsourcing firms, performed tasks such as evaluating, editing, and rewriting chatbot responses and rating AI outputs. Most GlobalLogic raters are U.S.-based and work on English-language content. Many required master's or PhD credentials and came from writing, teaching, or creative backgrounds. Workers allege the cuts coincided with efforts to suppress protests over pay, job insecurity, and working conditions, highlighting precarity in outsourced content-moderation roles.
Read at WIRED
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