The Silent Price of Artificial Intelligence: Labor and Personal Jurisdiction in The Global South

By: Theophilus Edwin Coleman

Despite the economic potential of artificial intelligence

(AI), significant drawbacks exist, particularly the

exploitation of digital labor in developing countries by large

AI corporations. A crucial issue in AI development is the

reliance on data annotators and digital workers from the

Global South to train AI systems or models. These workers

perform essential tasks such as labeling, sorting, and

categorizing data, enabling AI systems to learn, simulate, and

address sociocultural and legal issues. Leading AI

corporations, including OpenAI, Meta, and Google, outsource

this work to third-party contractors, reducing AI costs while

accessing the skilled labor pool in the Global South. Such

outsourcing arrangements have raised concerns about

compliance with the labor rights of digital workers (data

annotators/labelers), who often endure precarious working

conditions, including low or unpaid wages, poor

environments, and unfair practices.

A prime example is the abrupt shutdown of Remotasks,

a platform owned by ScaleAI in the United States, which left

many workers unpaid in Kenya. Similarly, when data

workers attempted to unionize in Kenya for better working

conditions, Samasource, a contractor for Meta Platforms

Incorporated, ceased operations, claiming it was financially

unfeasible to operate in Kenya. The fundamental question

that arises is how data annotators can seek vindication of

their rights against leading AI corporations and their third-

party contractors for violations of labor rights, including

unpaid wages and unjust practices. This Article aims to

reflect on the personal jurisdiction aspect regarding the labor

cost of AI in digital annotation hotspots in the Global South,

specifically examining the legal positions in Kenya and India.

This Article examines the mechanisms through which

courts in these countries can uphold and enforce the labor

rights of data annotators and digital workers. This Article

advocates for the recalibration of conflict of law rules,

particularly those concerning jurisdiction, to align with the

new frontiers of employment law—digital labor. It argues

that realigning personal jurisdiction rules in the Global

South will create a legitimate pathway for data annotators

and digital workers to assert their labor rights against AI

corporations and third-party contractors. This will

ultimately foster legal accountability for AI corporations and

mitigate the potential for labor exploitation in the Global

South.