CODE JANITORS | NEURAL IMPLANTS | ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | TECHNOLOGY | SOCIETY | FUTURE
Tracing humanity’s journey from tools to automation, and now
to AI curators and code janitors—guardians of our tangled digital world.
There is such a profusion of AI-generated garbage everywhere that need
trained deep-cleanup crews. Digital janitors to the rescue--People are
training themselves and queuing up to be custodians of the internet.
There is a heavy price to pay. While the big tech creating rules for AI
clean up are western or based in Global North, the populations used to clean AI
training data are outsourced from the Global South (Kenya, India and the
Phillipines). These workers are exploited with really low wages and are
especially selected because they are largely unemployable and have no other
option. They absorb the psychological cost of filtering damaging, violent and
soul-breaking content without any form of redressal or help. Video Source.
I long to go back to the days when our digital world could be shut down with
a click and we could go back to living our lives for real. We can switch off
even now, but it is a tad difficult, as our lives are inextricably tangled in
the web of dependency threads. It happened slowly, deliberately and over a
period of time.
They continue to hand us tools, and we happily continue to dig deeper holes
to bury ourselves in. The contraptions of convenience are more expensive and
shinier now, and we swim across oceans and fight a blizzard and sometimes
sacrifice our families and mental peace to acquire them.
The blingy gizmos have become extensions of our body and mind. We label, adorn
and clothe them with TLC and all the while still eye shinier things on the
counter. We are never satisfied. Satisfaction is programmed to be always a step
ahead, within reach but never quite there.
Homo Sapiens evolved to use tools and mechanisation for convenience and to
reduce human effort, but the process and quest got replaced with the wrong objective.
From harnessing natural energy and resources by using windmills and wheels, the
aim shifted towards more independence and control.
By the 19th century and through the Industrial Revolution with large-scale
automation of transport and communication, humans became operators rather than
direct labourers. Gradually they kept ‘innovating’ more contraptions to
eliminate the humans. They called it progress—this automation.
By the 20th century, mass production (assembly line, Ford) reduced human
skill requirements; computing (ENIAC) began replacing human calculation. This elimination
of humans from the system somehow became the benchmark test for all ‘progress’
in every arena. Doing things without humans was the new shiny goal serving the
capitalist system.
By the mid-20th century, machines began to “think” and perform repetitive
industrial tasks autonomously. And humans were carelessly flung on a flimsy
pedestal and told to concentrate on creating things instead of ‘wasting’ time
doing menial things.
But in reality, from being the centre of the universe, humans were slowly
being relegated to a redundant status everywhere. Systems were created to
recognise patterns and adapt and grow on their own without human oversight.
Artificial intelligence technology is designed to replace humans. They claim
that the tech is here to augment and facilitate our work. But the way AI is
learning and mimicking us daily with our own compliance and enthusiasm, it will
soon adapt and develop further, sidelining us completely.
Presently, AI manages even creativity, curation, and code
maintenance—removing humans from repetitive intellectual labour and shifting
them toward ‘strategic’ oversight with an army of code janitors and human
custodians of the digital world.
The AI curators and code janitors represent the latest stage where machines
not only perform tasks but also organise, improve, and augment human-created
systems with negligible intervention.
If we continue on this path, what’s next? Do we want to continue on this
path, even after knowing what’s next?
The next frontier isn’t just automation of tasks—it’s automation
of innovation and governance itself. We may see AI designing new paradigms of
knowledge and even rules, laws and codes.
The next stage is already being labelled-- ‘post-human
symbiosis', where AI merges with human cognition through brain–computer
interfaces, genetic augmentation, or neural co-processing.
Elon Musk’s company Neuralink is already achieving this artificial
synthesis with neural implants.
In November last year, Neuralink announced that it had implanted its
brain chip in 12 people with severe paralysis. Noland Arbaugh, the first
patient to receive the implant, said in an interview that the chip allows him
to play Mario Kart, control the TV, and operate household appliances without
having to move any part of his body. https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/science/neuralink-to-begin-mass-production-of-brain-implants-in-2025-says-elon-musk-10453293/
While we might be happy with the medical use of this technology, but can we
stop its misuse or lifestyle adaptation?
Actually, we cannot.
The perversion of this technology is already here with Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
They are the stylish, accessible cousin of Neuralink’s implants. While Musk’s
implants work from inside, the Meta glasses work externally translating neural
or gestural signals into digital actions through a neural band accessory.
The challenge remains…How do we ensure that these systems remain
aligned with human ethics, rather than drifting into self-serving logic
controlled by a few?
What about privacy and consent?
Are we all already in a multiplayer game with no exit and no
agency or control to change anything?
Where are the custodians and sentinels?
There is no OUT from this twisted web, is there?
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