iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

New preprint: “The Making of the Data Working Class”, where I critique AI capital-driven narratives and examine the rising visibility & mobilization of data workers, emerging as a global working class alongside tech workers, often seen as a digital middle class. Open access: hal.science/hal-05742364

The making of the data working class cover

The making of the data working class abstract

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Great news folks! I've been selected by Villa Albertine, to talk at SXSW. Now I need your help. It'll take you exactly 3 minutes (I timed it): - create an account: id.sxsw.com/sign_up - go to my proposal: participate.sxsw.com/flow/sxsw/sx... - put a ❤️ (top-right corner) Deadline: Aug. 23, 2026.

It Takes a Planet (and Millions of Workers) to Make AI

Description
AI is viewed as capital alone: big investments, powerful models, visionary entrepreneurs. That's only part of the story. AI is also built from human labor and natural resources, much of it from the Global South. You've seen the headlines: Kenyan workers paid $1.34/hour to train ChatGPT, billions of gallons of water for datacenters, lithium mining in South America. This session hands you one framework to connect these scattered pieces. The vision of AI as a chain of capital, land, and labor is now sparking new resistance movements that unite workers, citizens, and environmental activists.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Delighted to see the South Korean edition of my book out in the world. My first thanks go to publisher E-sang Books and to translator Byun Jung-soo. It’s been… hem, strange to see the positive attention the book has received in newspapers over the last few days… (Post continues in caption)

It’s been… hem, strange to see the positive attention the book has received in newspapers over the last few days, from centre-left The Hankyoreh to conservative중앙일보 JoongAng Ilbo and even the decidedly right-wing The Dong-A Ilbo (동아일보). Don’t get me wrong: as an author, that’s gratifying. But as someone who still thinks political categories matter, it is also slightly unsettling. Perhaps the book reads less radical than I thought.

Luckily, there was also this photo.

The person who shared it with me insisted that it showed a seven-feet-tall 3D display of my book in a bookstore. I was skeptical. A giant promotional installation seemed somewhat unlikely for a 500-page academic essay.

Looking closer at the picture (and looking up the bookstore where it was taken) reassured me. The book cover appears enormous only because the photograph was taken as a closeup from above the counter. Not any counter. That’s Gnal, the legendary Seoul National University bookstore.

Gnal is the last remaining brick and mortar venue in Korea specializing in the humanities and social sciences, and it played an important role in the student movement of the 1980s and ‘90s. At one point, its owner Kim Dong-Woo was detained under the accusation of selling “subversive books”. He was released only after fierce student protests.

The name Gnal comes from a poem by Shim Hoon and roughly means “When That Day Comes.” I can’t help noticing the paradoxical resonance between that name and the Korean title of my book: “The Robots Are Not Coming”. Automated dystopia will not prevail, while the hope for a more humane future is more resilient as long as someone is still animated by the unyielding refusal to give up on society.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

The Korean translation of my book "Waiting or Robots" will be available in bookstores next week. I especially like the way the title has been rendered: “Robots Will Not Come. The myth of automation and the hidden truth of human labor” (로봇은 오지 않는다 자동화 신화와 은폐된 인간 노동의 진실) 👌🎯

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

🚨D-7 The call for papers for INDL-9 is still open—until April 30, 2026. This time our annual conference will be hosted on Sept 9–11, 2026 at the International Labour Organization (ILO), Geneva. www.indl.network/indl-9/ cc. @ubiquity75.xyz @posada.website @milamiceli.bsky.social #ai #work #labor

INDL-9 conference cfp submit until 30 April 2026

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Le jeudi 9 avril j’interviendrai à l’Assemblée Nationale pour décrypter les atteintes aux droits humains dont sont victimes les ouvriers et ouvrières de la donnée, et interroger les responsabilités qu’elles engagent. Dernières inscriptions par ici : 3a4c7c38.sibforms.com/serve/MUIFAJ...

Conférence Antonio Casilli Assemblée nationale

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Mardi 17 mars, 18h, mon séminaire "Le 'travail du clic'. Interroger le geste productif et ses implications pour la subjectivité politique des travailleurs de l’IA", examinera le concept dans une perspective historique. - en présence : 54 bd Raspail, 75006 Paris, Salle AS1_24 - Zoom : merci de me DM

Séminaire EHESS histoire du travail du clic

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Glossaire d'éducation populaire sur l'IA, les problèmes sociaux, les retombées politiques, les alternatives possibles. Conçu pour enseignants, formateurs, travailleurs sociaux et journalistes et quiconque souhaite aller au-delà des discours dominants. iaep.be

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Ieri sera Le Iene, popolare trasmissione di inchiesta della televisione italiana, ha mandato in onda la prima parte di un servizio di approfondimento sulle condizioni lavorative di chi addestra l’IA. Nel servizio anche la mia analisi, che condivido per raccontare questa realtà sommersa.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

We are kicking off 2026 with a new report! The comprehensive study "Data Work in Egypt: Who Are the Workers Behind Artificial Intelligence?" conducted by the DiPLab research collective, provides the first in-depth examination of Egyptian data workers. diplab.eu/diplab-relea...

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

It’s been an incredible week in Istanbul. I presented our documentary “In the Belly of AI” at the Cooperative AI conference, discussed recent DiPLab research at the TÜFRAM seminar at Marmara university, enjoyed time with old & new friends, indulged in my unabashed passion for anything Byzantine.

Antonio A. Casilli keynote at the Cooperative AI conference, Istanbul Planlama Ajansı.

XIV century mosaic at The Chora (Kariye Camii), Istanbul.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

If Sam Altman claimed something about a past event — say, a date or a historical episode — would you take his word for it, or would you double-check the facts elsewhere? Then why take him at his word when he talks about things that haven’t happened yet?

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Sovereignty, justice, and sustainability meet AI infrastructures in places with long histories of political experimentation and environmental struggles—like Chile. On Nov. 21, 3pm, come to our DiPLab seminar ft. Prof. Martin Tironi, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: diplab.eu/martin-tiron...

DiPLab seminar Martin tironi 21 Nov 2025, ISC-PIF, Paris, 3pm CET.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Today marks the 20th anniversary of Amazon MTurk, launched on Nov 2, 2005, to pioneer “artificial artificial intelligence”: using 500,000 underpaid workers to annotate, review, imitate AI. What a difference 20 years makes! Today they’re still underpaid but there are tens of millions of them.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Bosses always call themselves AI when they’re ready for layoffs.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

« Je ne veux ni le synonyme ni le terme équivalent. »

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Il nostro documentario “In the Belly of AI” continua il suo tour dei festival italiani. Dopo Bologna (INDL-8), Modena (finalista DIG Awards), Piacenza (Festival del Pensare Contemporaneo), appuntamento il 1 ottobre alle 21.00, a Torino per il controfestival Italian Tech Resistance.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Dernièrement, trop de discussions sur le "bien-être de l'IA" (si vous le suivez vous savez ce que j'en pense🤮). Pour contrecarrer ce délire, venez à notre séminaire DiPLab sur le ^bien-être des travailleurs^ des plateforme de data work! 📌Paris 26.9.25, 15h Inscription ici👉 diplab.eu/diplab-semin...

DiPLab seminar welcomes Tim Christiaens, Francesca Ciulli and Ivana Vranjes for this academic year kick off session (Fri. 26 September 2025, 3:00 PM CET)

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

That’s the kind of dumb shit you read when a clueless NYT journalist mistakes debating for dialectic.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Last month @theguardian.com did something stupid, and today they fixed it. And I’m in it. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Hinton insists that if you use ChatGPT at work, AI has stolen your job. So if his girlfriend uses ChatGPT to dump him, I guess AI just stole his girlfriend.

If there were a Nobel Prize for being a fucking joke, Geoffrey Hinton would win it hands down.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Tout à fait. C’est l’"argument Autor" du nom du seul économiste qui n’ait pas bu le cool aid. Btw, quand il s’agit du mythe du "grand remplacement mécanique", les géants de la tech sont les premiers à ne pas y croire. v cet entretien de Zuckerberg, où il explique pourquoi IA=plus de travailleurs.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Avez-vous vu ces annonces LinkedIn "enseignez à une IA" pour profils bac+8, 25€/h, télétravail facile? Il s'agit d'une vaste opération de comm’ des producteurs d'IA, non pas pour recruter des talents, mais… pour appâter les investisseurs avec le mirage de l'AGI. diplab.eu/the-ai-tutor...

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Last week, Paola Tubaro and I had the honor to participate in the WORK2025 conference. My keynote was titled: “Where does AI come from?” Paola Tubaro’s presentation was: “Women in the loop: the gendered contribution of data workers to AI”. Find video and summary here: diplab.eu/diplab-resea...

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

2017: Facebook AI invented a “brand-new language”. Got so scary scientists had to unplug it. Total BS, yet people don’t keep track. 2025: an OpenAI employee claims GPT-5 invented brand-new math. But as the company's hopes for trillion-dollar investments, no fake fear - and no dramatic unplugging.

2025: OpenAI’s employee claims that GPT-5 invented entirely new math.

2017: Facebook’s employees claim that their AI invented entirely new language.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

The documentary is finished and was already broadcast in France Japan Finland (other countries are coming soon) plus it’s available on a few online platforms. Check with the international distribution company Federation studios federationstudios.com/is/in-the-be...

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

INDL-8 is only 60 days away! Keynotes feature @ubiquity75.xyz, Joan Kinyua, Sandro Mezzadra et al. Special events include: a panel discussion with data workers inside one of Europe's biggest data centers, a counterculture city tour of Bologna, and more. Register at👉 www.indl.network/its-60-days-...

INDL 8 conference 10-12 Sept 2025 Bologna Italy registration is free but mandatory (deadline: 20 Aug 2025)

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

INDL-8 “Contesting Digital Labor: Resistance, counter-uses, and new directions for research” is coming up! Did you register to join us and 200+ participants in Bologna, Italy, on 10–12 September 2025? It’s free to attend — just make sure to register. www.indl.network/indl-8/

Register for INDL8 Bologna Italy 10-12 Sept 2025

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

On parle beaucoup des livreurs, mais qui connaît les dispatchers? Ils corrigent les algorithmes & réaffectent les commandes des plateformes de livraison. 🎙️ On en parle le 3/07 à 15h30 à l’ISC-PIF avec Francisca Gutiérrez Crocco. 👉 Séminaire gratuit, inscription obligatoire diplab.eu/welcoming-fr...

Seminar DiPLab Francisca Gutierrez Crocco

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

𝑨𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒂 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑫𝒊𝑷𝑳𝒂𝒃 𝒔𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒓 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔 3 𝑱𝒖𝒍𝒚 3:30𝒑𝒎 Are delivery platforms over? Facing global scrutiny, million € fines, labor law rulings… Join us in welcoming Prof. Francisca Gutiérrez Crocco to study these developments with a Global South lens. Register here👉 diplab.eu/welcoming-fr...

DiPLab seminar on delivery apps labor conditions. Paris, 3 July, 3:30pm

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

I was walking in the streets of Buenos Aires, when I realized something was gone. There was an absence I couldn’t name.   Then I saw it. The doormen had vanished.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

An afternoon at the Biblioteca Vallicelliana, Rome.

Biblioteca Vallicelliana exterior, Rome.

Biblioteca Vallicelliana XV astronomy treaty, Rome.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

En 1950 Turing invente le Test du même nom. Dans le même texte il imagine aussi une IA comme une "machine-enfant" qui apprend, ressent, souffre. Le 23 mai à Paris, Evan Selinger explorera cet héritage dans notre séminaire DiPLab. 17h, Maison de la Recherche. Inscription👉 tinyurl.com/diplab-selin...

Evan Selinger seminar May 23, 2025 5pm Paris

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Rendez-vous le 23 mai à 17h à la Maison de la Recherche de Paris pour écouter le philosophe Evan Selinger!On parlera de l’obsession des milliardaires de la tech pour créer des IA anthropomorphes—et de ce que cela dit de notre rapport à l’idée même d’humanité. Inscription👉 tinyurl.com/diplab-selin...

Séminaire Evan Selinger à Paris 23 mai Maison de la Recherche 17h.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Google, Meta, and Co. are developing AI companions mimicking emotions. Is delegating human connection to machines worth the risk? What's the cost of machines “with a soul”? Register here and join me for a new DiPLab seminar with philosopher Evan Selinger on May 23 at 5pm. tinyurl.com/diplab-selin...

Come hear philosopher Evan Selinger in conversation with Antonio Casilli in Paris on May 23 at 5 p.m.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

Fig. 1. WSJ headline in 2025. Fig. 2. Me on the ILO podcast in 2023.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Thrilled to speak at the "Promises and Perils of the Digital Transformation of Work" seminar in Barcelona on April 30. In my talk, I’ll discuss the recent demise of Spain's Meta moderators as a symptom of the push to outsource data work in the global South. www.url.edu/en/press/eve...

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Are Venezuelan data workers the forgotten heroes of AI? diplab.eu/new-article-... (Our new article “Uninvited Protagonists: The Networked Agency of Venezuelan Platform Data Workers”, co-authored by DiPLab’s Paola Tubaro and Juana Torres-Cierpe, just out in New Technology, Work & Employment).

New Technology, Work & Employment DiPLab

New Technology, Work & Employment DiPLab article Venezuela data workers

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

✊ May 5, 2025 - Extended Deadline for INDL-8 "Contesting Digital Labor" | Bologna 🇮🇹 Sept 10-12, 2025 For the call for papers, please check the INDL website: www.indl.network/indl-8/ To submit your abstract, please visit the conference management system SciencesConf: indl-8.sciencesconf.org

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

The path to AGI is paved with postponements: yesterday Sam Altman delayed—again—the much-hyped #GPT5, originally scheduled for 2023. That's a good time to announce my upcoming @etui.bsky.social webinar: "When Robots Don't Show Up", April 16 2PM. Sign up for free here: www.etui.org/fr/events/ai...

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

In 2020, we interviewed several FB moderators in Barcelona for our documentary 'Invisibles'. Since then, a lot has changed. Zuck claims moderation is over, but it's actually gone global, in Kenya or in Colombia. Barcelona shuts down operations, but moderation continues elsewhere.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Marine Le Pen, former leader of France’s far-right National Rally (RN), has been sentenced to four years in prison—two of which must be served—and banned from holding office for five years. This ruling bars her from running in the next presidential election. (Source: @mediapart.fr)

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Corporations must acknowledge their responsibility to the data workforce: provide comprehensive mental health support, fair compensation reflecting their professional risks, transparent working conditions, and protection from exploitation for migrant workers.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Moderators face particularly severe working conditions with serious psychological consequences. Companies typically offer inadequate counseling services and insufficient support while workers develop mental health problems from constant exposure to disturbing material.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

These workers—from data labelers to content moderators to AI trainers—face troubling challenges. According to our research, one in five workers is a migrant, vulnerable to visa-related blackmail, and their speech is restricted by NDAs. (Fig: continents of origin & destination)

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Sure, data work is known to take place in low-income countries in the Majority World. However, our research also reveals worrying situations within European borders. The pay here is slightly higher than in other regions, but the working conditions and social protections are 💩.

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Case in point, EnCOre, #DiPLab's study for the European Parliament about the working conditions of data workers. We fielded nearly 600 questionnaires and almost 20 focus groups, and published a comprehensive analysis of who trains AI systems in Europe. hal.science/hal-04662589...

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

This strategy — persuading people they're delusional — extends far beyond politics. Tech companies, which have emerged as Trump's biggest allies since he began his second term, often employ similar tactics when confronted with uncomfortable truths about their behavior and impact.

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