The micro-workers behind artificial intelligence: Exploring new digital subjects and their precariousness in the world of work[Los micro-trabajadores detrás de la inteligencia artificial: Explorando nuevos sujetos digitales y sus precariedades en el mundo laboral]

In digital environments, value production involves not only computer developers and engineers, but a broader range of digital subjects – from users to data workers – whose contributions are often occluded from view. We break down their digital labour into its different forms: classification, monetisation and automation in the case of users; and preparation, verification and impersonation in the case of data workers. Far from a simple succession of predefined mechanical tasks, we show that all these forms of work are complex human activities that harness knowledge, skills, personal commitments, moral judgements, emotional elements and bodily dimensions. When we open the black box of AI, what emerges is a plurality of subjects who, through their digital interactions, reveal intimate aspects of their subjectivities and form an essential—though largely overlooked—part of the value chain that sustains this technology. Therefore, any critical reflection on the regulation of AI and its ethical and social implications must recognise the active role played by these digital subjects as co-producers of value and invisible protagonists of the ongoing technological transformation.