22 votes

Prison inmates in Finland are being employed as data labellers to improve accuracy of AI models

7 comments

  1. [7]
    Minori
    Link
    Somehow the tone of the headline feels much more dystopian than the article. Overall, it actually seems positive? It's boring work, but it gives prisoners the option to basically solve captchas...

    Somehow the tone of the headline feels much more dystopian than the article. Overall, it actually seems positive? It's boring work, but it gives prisoners the option to basically solve captchas instead of doing manual labour to earn a bit more cash while incarcerated.

    17 votes
    1. [6]
      raze2012
      Link Parent
      it really depends on your outlook on AI. manual labor is just that and already a bad enough excuse to pay below minimum wage for labor. Now we have literal prisoners training a future that may...

      it really depends on your outlook on AI. manual labor is just that and already a bad enough excuse to pay below minimum wage for labor. Now we have literal prisoners training a future that may eliminate their own future jobs, as well as the jobs of others. All under the duress of going back to backbreaking labor or getting a longer sentence.

      of course, the optimistic interpretation is that prisoners don't need to do backbreaking labor and that AI helps create more jobs than it destroys. much of the article is an opimistic spin and they swear it's not easy for tech companies to exploit.

      15 votes
      1. [5]
        Minori
        Link Parent
        Yeah, it's two different problems. Wages for prisoners are one pickle, and the other is the job of labelling data. Ignoring the first pickle, the job itself doesn't concern me much. If the worst...

        Yeah, it's two different problems. Wages for prisoners are one pickle, and the other is the job of labelling data.

        Ignoring the first pickle, the job itself doesn't concern me much. If the worst part of the job itself is that it's boring and a nontransferable skill, this seems completely fine. There are much worse jobs prisoners could do. As long as it's opt-in, I don't see any ethical concerns from the labor itself.

        8 votes
        1. [4]
          vord
          Link Parent
          The problem with most "opt in" prison jobs is that the only other option is more prison time. Perhaps with a month of isolation to encourage opting in to employment. Its kinda like saying you're...

          The problem with most "opt in" prison jobs is that the only other option is more prison time. Perhaps with a month of isolation to encourage opting in to employment.

          Its kinda like saying you're "opting in" to pay rent to avoid homelessness.

          I firmly believe prisoners need to be paid full minimum wage, as well as not allowing having a job in prison to affect imprisonment term.

          6 votes
          1. [3]
            Minori
            Link Parent
            As best as I can tell (I don't speak Finnish), I don't think that's an issue per Finnish sources? The officials may have a point that prisoners aren't really competing with the average worker and...

            As best as I can tell (I don't speak Finnish), I don't think that's an issue per Finnish sources? The officials may have a point that prisoners aren't really competing with the average worker and don't need to pay for rent, basic meals, etc. I don't think there's any direct punishment for not choosing a job either. I also kinda support encouraging inmates to take up work that could help them transition back to standard civilian life.

            6 votes
            1. RheingoldRiver
              Link Parent
              i think that's the major concern tbh, that this kind of data labeling will not help you get a civilian job that pays decently.

              that could help them transition back to standard civilian life.

              i think that's the major concern tbh, that this kind of data labeling will not help you get a civilian job that pays decently.

              8 votes
            2. Macha
              Link Parent
              So in the first version of FFXIV that was released, there was the fatigue system to discourage grinding too much..your XP would start at 100% and reduce the longer you played, so you were getting...

              So in the first version of FFXIV that was released, there was the fatigue system to discourage grinding too much..your XP would start at 100% and reduce the longer you played, so you were getting less xp as play sessions get longer. It was very unpopular.

              In the current version of FFXIV, there is the rested XP system, where XP starts at 200% and reduces the longer you play to a baseline that's now called 100%. It's framed as a bonus on login, but of course all the XP sources are balanced to consider that most players are getting 200% xp most of the time.

              It's the same system, just reframed as "a bonus on a new day" rather than "a penalty for playing too long".

              This is also how I basically see "they're not penalised for not doing it" vs "doing it looks good on their application for early release"

              3 votes