‘In the end, you feel blank’: India’s female workers watching hours of abusive content to train AI

> Researchers say this emotional numbing – followed by delayed psychological fallout – is a defining feature of content moderation work. “There may be moderators who escape psychological harm, but I’ve yet to see evidence of that,” says Milagros Miceli, a sociologist leading the Data Workers’ Inquiry, a project investigating the roles of workers in AI. > > “In terms of risk,” she says, “content moderation belongs in the category of dangerous work, comparable to any lethal industry.” > The Guardian spoke to eight data-annotation and content-moderation companies in India. Only two said they provided psychological support to workers; the rest argued that the work was not demanding enough to require mental healthcare. > > Vadaliya says that where there is support, the individual has to seek it out, shifting the burden of care on to workers. “It ignores the reality that many data workers, especially those coming from remote or marginalised backgrounds, may not even have the language to articulate what they are experiencing,” she says. > > The absence of legal recognition of psychological harm in India’s labour laws, she adds, also leaves workers without meaningful protections.