Labor Power and the Role of Subcontracting in the AI Economy

The termination of Meta’s contract with Sama, resulting in the redundancy of over 1,000 Kenyan data workers, underscores the systemic failures of global labor supply chains.
This incident highlights a deep structural issue where labor is organized through an “outsourcing maze,” facilitated by intermediaries to extract value in a capitalist system.
Technology firms increasingly rely on intermediaries to manage labor uncertainties and risks, particularly in context-dependent work like data entry and content moderation.
Intermediaries, such as large subcontractors, maintain extensive control over workers through surveillance, low pay, and limited career mobility, while negotiating higher-value activities.
The reliance on intermediaries hides the full scope of the supply chain and the real entities exerting control over worker labor, complicating efforts for worker organizing.
Due to technological and industrial secrecy, as well as weakened trade unions, achieving worker rights is more challenging in AI-enabled global value chains compared to traditional ones.
The failure of AI value chains to serve workers reflects capitalism’s inherent uneven development, with benefits skewing towards large subcontracting firms.
A governance gap exists regarding labor and environmental standards, with current laws and initiatives failing to adequately cover upstream impacts in AI supply chains.