In his essay Les damnés de la donnée, published on October 2 by Raisons d’Agir, sociologist Clément Le Ludec examines the working conditions of data annotators in the French market. He argues for the recognition of their expertise in the AI production chain, which is often overlooked. In this 190-page work, Le Ludec highlights how the narrative around automation and artificial intelligence often ignores the essential, behind-the-scenes work of preparing and refining data for these technologies. Le Ludec spoke with data annotators in Madagascar and founders of French tech start-ups to understand the realities of this labor. When asked about the origins of his study, he explained that it began in 2018 with research on French micro-workers, or "click workers," who perform data management tasks for algorithmic systems. This work is often undervalued, despite its importance in training and refining AI. The research team, including sociologist Antonio Casilli, found that many workers relied on the active solidarity income (RSA), a form of social assistance in France. For these individuals, earning 50 euros a month through data annotation was more than just a side job—it was a significant source of income. While studies had explored the impact of platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk in India, similar work in Francophone Africa had not been widely examined. Le Ludec decided to focus on Madagascar after recognizing its role in supporting France's digitization efforts. Madagascar and Morocco are two countries that have historically played a key role in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, which involves delegating tasks like digitizing documents to other countries. For example, when French publishing companies began digitizing their manuscripts, they often sent them to Madagascar for processing. This pattern continued with other industries, such as the press, which relied on Madagascar for tasks like creating image outlines.