Milagros Miceli
@milamiceli.bsky.social
Sociologist & Computer Scientist
PI: @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social
Research Lead @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social
Research Lead @dairinstitute.bsky.social
🌐 milamiceli.com
PI: @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social
Research Lead @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social
Research Lead @dairinstitute.bsky.social
🌐 milamiceli.com
Pinned
Milagros Miceli
@milamiceli.bsky.social
· Aug 28
I am thrilled to be recognized by TIME as one of the 100 most influential people worldwide in the field of artificial intelligence for my work with @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social.
>> #TIME100AI time.com/time100ai
I want to take this opportunity to share a few reflections on this work 👇🧵
>> #TIME100AI time.com/time100ai
I want to take this opportunity to share a few reflections on this work 👇🧵
Reposted by Milagros Miceli
«A veces la gente cree que, por ejemplo, está hablando con un chatbot sexual y en realidad es un trabajador de Kenia precarizado»
No dejen de ver esta entrevista de @norabar.bsky.social con @milamiceli.bsky.social derribando mitos frutos del hype en torno a la IA: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcDb...
No dejen de ver esta entrevista de @norabar.bsky.social con @milamiceli.bsky.social derribando mitos frutos del hype en torno a la IA: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcDb...
December 30, 2025 at 2:33 AM
«A veces la gente cree que, por ejemplo, está hablando con un chatbot sexual y en realidad es un trabajador de Kenia precarizado»
No dejen de ver esta entrevista de @norabar.bsky.social con @milamiceli.bsky.social derribando mitos frutos del hype en torno a la IA: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcDb...
No dejen de ver esta entrevista de @norabar.bsky.social con @milamiceli.bsky.social derribando mitos frutos del hype en torno a la IA: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcDb...
Reposted by Milagros Miceli
AND ANOTHER THING, WHILE I'M AT IT:
ENOUGH WITH THESE BULLSHIT CLAIMS THAT AI CAN REPLACE HUMAN TRANSLATORS!!!
Translation is *not* the science of finding the perfect definition of a word from a foreign language and putting that definition into the text.
Translators translate, of course. But!
ENOUGH WITH THESE BULLSHIT CLAIMS THAT AI CAN REPLACE HUMAN TRANSLATORS!!!
Translation is *not* the science of finding the perfect definition of a word from a foreign language and putting that definition into the text.
Translators translate, of course. But!
December 28, 2025 at 4:15 PM
AND ANOTHER THING, WHILE I'M AT IT:
ENOUGH WITH THESE BULLSHIT CLAIMS THAT AI CAN REPLACE HUMAN TRANSLATORS!!!
Translation is *not* the science of finding the perfect definition of a word from a foreign language and putting that definition into the text.
Translators translate, of course. But!
ENOUGH WITH THESE BULLSHIT CLAIMS THAT AI CAN REPLACE HUMAN TRANSLATORS!!!
Translation is *not* the science of finding the perfect definition of a word from a foreign language and putting that definition into the text.
Translators translate, of course. But!
Qué miedo da esto!👇
🚨 Nueva función de Twitter/X para fomentar el ABUSO y la violación de derechos. Ahora cualquier usuario podrá editar a través de Grok cualquier imagen de cualquier usuario de la plataforma, sean obras de arte, fotos familiares, etc. No hay opción para desactivarlo o impedirlo 🚨
📷 @pizza990 on X
📷 @pizza990 on X
December 26, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Qué miedo da esto!👇
Reposted by Milagros Miceli
🚨 Nueva función de Twitter/X para fomentar el ABUSO y la violación de derechos. Ahora cualquier usuario podrá editar a través de Grok cualquier imagen de cualquier usuario de la plataforma, sean obras de arte, fotos familiares, etc. No hay opción para desactivarlo o impedirlo 🚨
📷 @pizza990 on X
📷 @pizza990 on X
December 25, 2025 at 1:46 AM
🚨 Nueva función de Twitter/X para fomentar el ABUSO y la violación de derechos. Ahora cualquier usuario podrá editar a través de Grok cualquier imagen de cualquier usuario de la plataforma, sean obras de arte, fotos familiares, etc. No hay opción para desactivarlo o impedirlo 🚨
📷 @pizza990 on X
📷 @pizza990 on X
Reposted by Milagros Miceli
Must read new report from @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social co-researcher Michael Geoffrey Asia. Find more at data-workers.org and read more about the DWI project at www.dair-institute.org/projects/dat...
December 10, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Must read new report from @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social co-researcher Michael Geoffrey Asia. Find more at data-workers.org and read more about the DWI project at www.dair-institute.org/projects/dat...
Reposted by Milagros Miceli
Data Workers’ Inquiry continues its excellent project of amplifying voices of the human labor too often overlooked in debates about genAI. This latest report from Michael Geoffrey Asia is an essential read.
Now imagine sharing your private fantasies with what you believe is a bot that cannot judge or remember. Just that, on the other side, is a man in a one-room home in Nairobi, pretending to be an AI companion.
That man is Michael, and this is his story: data-workers.org/michael/
That man is Michael, and this is his story: data-workers.org/michael/
The Emotional Labor Behind AI Intimacy, by Michael Geoffrey Asia.
Imagine confiding your most private fantasies to what you believe is an unfeeling algorithm that cannot judge or remember. Now imagine that on the other side of that conversation is a man sitting in a...
data-workers.org
December 10, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Data Workers’ Inquiry continues its excellent project of amplifying voices of the human labor too often overlooked in debates about genAI. This latest report from Michael Geoffrey Asia is an essential read.
Reposted by Milagros Miceli
Y'all wanna warn your friends before you get on the "AI companion" bandwagon and warn your friends, help them get informed.
Now imagine sharing your private fantasies with what you believe is a bot that cannot judge or remember. Just that, on the other side, is a man in a one-room home in Nairobi, pretending to be an AI companion.
That man is Michael, and this is his story: data-workers.org/michael/
That man is Michael, and this is his story: data-workers.org/michael/
The Emotional Labor Behind AI Intimacy, by Michael Geoffrey Asia.
Imagine confiding your most private fantasies to what you believe is an unfeeling algorithm that cannot judge or remember. Now imagine that on the other side of that conversation is a man sitting in a...
data-workers.org
December 10, 2025 at 4:15 AM
Y'all wanna warn your friends before you get on the "AI companion" bandwagon and warn your friends, help them get informed.
Reposted by Milagros Miceli
This report co-prepared by @dairinstitute.bsky.social is *horrifying*. data-workers.org/wp-content/u...
It turns out that, yes, you can give cis people gender dysphoria by forcing them to do immersive sexual roleplay in shifts, without regard to their gender identity and sexuality.
It turns out that, yes, you can give cis people gender dysphoria by forcing them to do immersive sexual roleplay in shifts, without regard to their gender identity and sexuality.
data-workers.org
December 10, 2025 at 7:30 AM
This report co-prepared by @dairinstitute.bsky.social is *horrifying*. data-workers.org/wp-content/u...
It turns out that, yes, you can give cis people gender dysphoria by forcing them to do immersive sexual roleplay in shifts, without regard to their gender identity and sexuality.
It turns out that, yes, you can give cis people gender dysphoria by forcing them to do immersive sexual roleplay in shifts, without regard to their gender identity and sexuality.
Reposted by Milagros Miceli
gen ai as a project exists to ingest the other and reconfigure it as white supremacist fantasy
Now imagine sharing your private fantasies with what you believe is a bot that cannot judge or remember. Just that, on the other side, is a man in a one-room home in Nairobi, pretending to be an AI companion.
That man is Michael, and this is his story: data-workers.org/michael/
That man is Michael, and this is his story: data-workers.org/michael/
The Emotional Labor Behind AI Intimacy, by Michael Geoffrey Asia.
Imagine confiding your most private fantasies to what you believe is an unfeeling algorithm that cannot judge or remember. Now imagine that on the other side of that conversation is a man sitting in a...
data-workers.org
December 9, 2025 at 7:55 PM
gen ai as a project exists to ingest the other and reconfigure it as white supremacist fantasy
Now imagine sharing your private fantasies with what you believe is a bot that cannot judge or remember. Just that, on the other side, is a man in a one-room home in Nairobi, pretending to be an AI companion.
That man is Michael, and this is his story: data-workers.org/michael/
That man is Michael, and this is his story: data-workers.org/michael/
The Emotional Labor Behind AI Intimacy, by Michael Geoffrey Asia.
Imagine confiding your most private fantasies to what you believe is an unfeeling algorithm that cannot judge or remember. Now imagine that on the other side of that conversation is a man sitting in a...
data-workers.org
December 9, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Now imagine sharing your private fantasies with what you believe is a bot that cannot judge or remember. Just that, on the other side, is a man in a one-room home in Nairobi, pretending to be an AI companion.
That man is Michael, and this is his story: data-workers.org/michael/
That man is Michael, and this is his story: data-workers.org/michael/
Or when the CEO of Fireflies admitted that his supposedly AI-powered transcription service originally ran on “two guys surviving on pizza“?
www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/...
www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/...
'We charged $100 a month for an AI that was really just two guys surviving on pizza' says the co-founder of a company now valued at $1 billion
And that tall guy buying a movie ticket was just two mischievous kids in a trench coat.
www.pcgamer.com
December 9, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Or when the CEO of Fireflies admitted that his supposedly AI-powered transcription service originally ran on “two guys surviving on pizza“?
www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/...
www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/...
Or the CEO of shopping startup Nate, who was charged with fraud for telling investors and customers that their system was powered by AI, but instead used human labor in the Philippines and Romania?
fortune.com/2025/04/11/a...
fortune.com/2025/04/11/a...
A tech CEO has been charged with fraud for saying his e-commerce startup was powered by AI, when it was actually just using manual human labor | Fortune
The actual automation, Justice Department officials say, was "effectively zero percent."
fortune.com
December 9, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Or the CEO of shopping startup Nate, who was charged with fraud for telling investors and customers that their system was powered by AI, but instead used human labor in the Philippines and Romania?
fortune.com/2025/04/11/a...
fortune.com/2025/04/11/a...
Remember the Amazon “Just Walk Out” supermarkets that were marketed as automated but actually relied on thousands of data workers in India?
www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just...
www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just...
Amazon's Just Walk Out technology relies on hundreds of workers in India watching you shop
Amazon promoted Just Walk Out as AI-powered cashierless technology. But the tech reportedly relied on workers in India for accuracy.
www.businessinsider.com
December 9, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Remember the Amazon “Just Walk Out” supermarkets that were marketed as automated but actually relied on thousands of data workers in India?
www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just...
www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just...
But Michael's story isn't an exception. AI impersonation is far more widespread than most people think.
December 9, 2025 at 2:16 PM
But Michael's story isn't an exception. AI impersonation is far more widespread than most people think.
Today, DWI publishes a powerful essay by @mgasia.bsky.social, who works impersonating an AI sex companion: data-workers.org/michael/
This piece offers a rare glimpse into the psychological and economic realities behind one of the fastest-growing sectors: AI-assisted intimacy.
This piece offers a rare glimpse into the psychological and economic realities behind one of the fastest-growing sectors: AI-assisted intimacy.
December 9, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Today, DWI publishes a powerful essay by @mgasia.bsky.social, who works impersonating an AI sex companion: data-workers.org/michael/
This piece offers a rare glimpse into the psychological and economic realities behind one of the fastest-growing sectors: AI-assisted intimacy.
This piece offers a rare glimpse into the psychological and economic realities behind one of the fastest-growing sectors: AI-assisted intimacy.
Reposted by Milagros Miceli
«The global AI industry is fueled by hidden and precarized labor: workers who collect and annotate data, keep data centers running, and mine rare earth minerals—not to mention the artists, translators, writers, and actors whose work fuels so-called generative AI» 📢 NEW PAPER!
November 28, 2025 at 10:30 PM
«The global AI industry is fueled by hidden and precarized labor: workers who collect and annotate data, keep data centers running, and mine rare earth minerals—not to mention the artists, translators, writers, and actors whose work fuels so-called generative AI» 📢 NEW PAPER!
Reposted by Milagros Miceli
“Research doesn't have to be exploitative.”
If you are interested in the methodology behind the Data Workers' Inquiry Project (@dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social), this is the paper for you.
Research doesn't have to be exploitative.👇🏽
Research doesn't have to be exploitative.👇🏽
📣New paper!
Thrilled to share the methodological recipe for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social in this article co-authored with @adiod.bsky.social @krystalkauffman.bsky.social Camilla Salim Wagner, Laurenz Sachenbacher @alexhanna.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.bsky.social
👉 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
Thrilled to share the methodological recipe for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social in this article co-authored with @adiod.bsky.social @krystalkauffman.bsky.social Camilla Salim Wagner, Laurenz Sachenbacher @alexhanna.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.bsky.social
👉 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
November 26, 2025 at 1:38 AM
“Research doesn't have to be exploitative.”
Reposted by Milagros Miceli
If you are interested in the methodology behind the Data Workers' Inquiry Project (@dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social), this is the paper for you.
Research doesn't have to be exploitative.👇🏽
Research doesn't have to be exploitative.👇🏽
📣New paper!
Thrilled to share the methodological recipe for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social in this article co-authored with @adiod.bsky.social @krystalkauffman.bsky.social Camilla Salim Wagner, Laurenz Sachenbacher @alexhanna.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.bsky.social
👉 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
Thrilled to share the methodological recipe for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social in this article co-authored with @adiod.bsky.social @krystalkauffman.bsky.social Camilla Salim Wagner, Laurenz Sachenbacher @alexhanna.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.bsky.social
👉 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
November 26, 2025 at 12:45 AM
If you are interested in the methodology behind the Data Workers' Inquiry Project (@dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social), this is the paper for you.
Research doesn't have to be exploitative.👇🏽
Research doesn't have to be exploitative.👇🏽
Reposted by Milagros Miceli
I'm thrilled to see this piece in the world. Through it, Dr. Milagros Miceli and her team have put some language to the worker-led methodology which they have developed.
📣New paper!
Thrilled to share the methodological recipe for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social in this article co-authored with @adiod.bsky.social @krystalkauffman.bsky.social Camilla Salim Wagner, Laurenz Sachenbacher @alexhanna.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.bsky.social
👉 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
Thrilled to share the methodological recipe for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social in this article co-authored with @adiod.bsky.social @krystalkauffman.bsky.social Camilla Salim Wagner, Laurenz Sachenbacher @alexhanna.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.bsky.social
👉 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
November 25, 2025 at 5:49 PM
I'm thrilled to see this piece in the world. Through it, Dr. Milagros Miceli and her team have put some language to the worker-led methodology which they have developed.
Thank you, Karen! Your work has been a great source of inspiration as we developed the methodology
November 25, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Thank you, Karen! Your work has been a great source of inspiration as we developed the methodology
In sum, this work is not only a methodological account but a proposal for reorienting AI research toward worker-led knowledge rather than extraction.
Read the full article here: ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
Read the full article here: ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
Methodological Considerations for Centering Workers’ Epistemic Authority in AI Research
| Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society
ojs.aaai.org
November 25, 2025 at 3:37 PM
In sum, this work is not only a methodological account but a proposal for reorienting AI research toward worker-led knowledge rather than extraction.
Read the full article here: ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
Read the full article here: ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
Finally, WIRM fosters what Gramsci called "organic intellectuals" embedded in the material conditions and collective struggles of their class. It cultivates networks of solidarity and tools for analysis generated from within worker communities.
See for instance: data-workers.org/DLA/
See for instance: data-workers.org/DLA/
Organizing Across Borders, by Joan Kinyua
The Data Labelers Association is developing mutual support structures and fighting for better working conditions. This inquiry recounts our path to founding it and acknowledges our ongoing partnership...
data-workers.org
November 25, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Finally, WIRM fosters what Gramsci called "organic intellectuals" embedded in the material conditions and collective struggles of their class. It cultivates networks of solidarity and tools for analysis generated from within worker communities.
See for instance: data-workers.org/DLA/
See for instance: data-workers.org/DLA/
Second, we bring this approach into the AI domain. WIRM provides a way to illuminate the human labor underpinning AI systems while allowing workers to define the terms of that illumination.
Our repository is proof of that: data-workers.org#Inquiries
Our repository is proof of that: data-workers.org#Inquiries
Data Workers' Inquiry - Data Workers' Inquiry
Data Workers' Inquiry
data-workers.org
November 25, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Second, we bring this approach into the AI domain. WIRM provides a way to illuminate the human labor underpinning AI systems while allowing workers to define the terms of that illumination.
Our repository is proof of that: data-workers.org#Inquiries
Our repository is proof of that: data-workers.org#Inquiries
First, we systematize Workers’ Inquiry as a Research Methodology (WIRM). We focus on its political grounding, its architecture, and its operationalization, offering a step-by-step guide, examples, and a discussion of challenges and tensions.
November 25, 2025 at 3:37 PM
First, we systematize Workers’ Inquiry as a Research Methodology (WIRM). We focus on its political grounding, its architecture, and its operationalization, offering a step-by-step guide, examples, and a discussion of challenges and tensions.
Workers’ inquiry operates both as a research strategy and a political practice: a way to produce situated knowledge, reveal structures of exploitation, create space for workers to theorize their own conditions, and, crucially, to organize.
Our contributions are several:
Our contributions are several:
November 25, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Workers’ inquiry operates both as a research strategy and a political practice: a way to produce situated knowledge, reveal structures of exploitation, create space for workers to theorize their own conditions, and, crucially, to organize.
Our contributions are several:
Our contributions are several: