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Brown University senior Cunyan Ma has created a free interactive map that links technology companies and their intermediaries to data workers around the world. Developed with Brown’s Center for Technological Responsibility, Reimagination and Redesign, the map combines existing data-worker databases, Ma’s own data collection and news reports on working conditions. It is part of an ongoing project examining the material underpinnings of the digital world. Data workers train AI systems by labeling objects in images, identifying parts of speech, transcribing speech, rating chatbot responses and marking tumor boundaries in medical scans. The work is often outsourced to people in the Global South who may receive low wages, according to Brown University. Some workers must also review disturbing images and text so AI systems can recognize harmful content or avoid producing it. Ma said the map is intended to make “AI colonialism” more visible and accessible, while supplementing anecdotal reporting with a broader picture of connections among technology firms, intermediaries and workers.