The Data Labelers Association is a new organization that brings together data workers in Kenya to advocate for better working conditions, mental health resources, and other support. We supported their launch with our collaborators at AI Now and Turkopticon. Our favorite moments were seeing dataworkers in Italy write in the chat how inspired they were by those in Kenya. This type of cross-border worker solidarity is what we hope to continue to foster.

We are generally cautious about sharing works before they are peer reviewed, because that process can result in tempering claims and correcting errors. But given the urgency of the topic, we are reading and sharing this preprint, The Unpaid Toll: Quantifying the Public Health Impact of AI, by Yuelin Han, Zhifeng Wu and others. They attempt to quantify the deaths and public health costs of pollution caused by the proliferation of data centers – and find that a hundreds of lives and billions of dollars may hang in the balance in the U.S. alone.

In her comments to the San Francisco Examiner, which covered this research, Alex says: “There's been a lot of focus in recent years on the impact of the AI boom on energy use, climate emissions and water evaporation.” But also, she notes, these researchers' paper is the first she's seen that offers a comprehensive look at how AI is affecting public health.

In the latest entry in our Possible Futures series, Adrienne dreams of a future where automated tools actually help students and teachers thrive, rather than the current tools that are advertised as being able to replace teachers. You can also catch Adrienne debunking “AI for education” hype on episode 45 of Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000.