Ghost Work

In the spirit of Nickel and Dimed, a necessary and revelatory expose of the invisible human workforce that powers the web—and that foreshadows the true future of work.

Hidden beneath the surface of the web, lost in our wrong-headed debates about AI, a new menace is looming. Anthropologist Mary L. Gray and computer scientist Siddharth Suri team up to unveil how services delivered by companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Uber can only function smoothly thanks to the judgment and experience of a vast, invisible human labor force. These people doing "ghost work" make the internet seem smart. They perform high-tech piecework: flagging X-rated content, proofreading, designing engine parts, and much more. An estimated 8 percent of Americans have worked at least once in this “ghost economy,” and that number is growing. They usually earn less than legal minimums for traditional work, they have no health benefits, and they can be fired at any time for any reason, or none.

There are no labor laws to govern this kind of work, and these latter-day assembly lines draw in—and all too often overwork and underpay—a surprisingly diverse range of workers: harried young mothers, professionals forced into early retirement, recent grads who can’t get a toehold on the traditional employment ladder, and minorities shut out of the jobs they want. Gray and Suri also show how ghost workers, employers, and society at large can ensure that this new kind of work creates opportunity—rather than misery—for those who do it.

How is this shadow economy built, and what can be done to protect the millions of people laboring within it?
The Paradox of Automation: Discover why the drive to eliminate human labor inevitably creates a new, hidden demand for human intervention in "automation’s last mile."Humans in the Loop: Go behind the scenes at companies like Amazon and Uber to see the invisible, on-demand workers who moderate content, train machine learning models, and make the internet seem smart.Algorithmic Cruelty: Understand how thoughtlessly designed platforms can lock workers out of accounts, deny payment, and create an unstable work environment with no benefits or legal recourse.The Future of Work: Explore actionable solutions for workers, employers, and policymakers to build a more equitable on-demand economy that creates opportunity instead of a new global underclass.