Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass

Mary L. Gray · Siddharth Suri

May 2019 · Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Will Damron

About this audiobook

Hidden beneath the surface of the internet, a new, stark reality is looming-one that cuts to the very heart of our endless debates about the impact of AI. 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, on-demand piecework: flagging X rated content, proofreading, transcribing audio, confirming identities, captioning video, and much more. An estimated 8 percent of Americans have worked at least once in this "ghost economy," and that number is growing. 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 workers, employers, and society at large can ensure that this new kind of work creates opportunity-rather than misery-for those who do it.

About the author

Mary L. Gray is a senior researcher at Microsoft Research New England and a fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.

Siddharth Suri is a senior researcher at Microsoft Research AI and was a founding member of Microsoft Research New York City.

Will Damron is an Audie Award-nominated narrator who has recorded books in every genre, from science fiction and fantasy to romance, YA, and nonfiction. Raised in rural southern Virginia, he has appeared Off-Broadway and on stage and screen throughout the country. He lives in Los Angeles, California.