Doctoral Dissertation Research: Intersections of Labor, Language, and Value in the Production of Emerging Technologies

本论文项目旨在进一步了解生产语言技术所涉及的劳动，如聊天机器人、大型语言模型和其他支持人工智能(AI)的技术。通过关注创造、管理和标记语言数据的工作者的经历，研究人员阐明了日常劳动和决策如何塑造新技术以及它们的社会和文化影响。除了对博士生进行研究方法和数据分析方面的培训外，这个项目还提高了公众对数字技术和使其生动起来的数据的理解。这项研究的结果将与不同学科的学术受众以及与数字劳工、语言和数据相关的非政府组织分享。这个项目的重点是如何在产生新的数字技术的背景下重视和转变语言。具体地说，这项研究考察了科技行业中各种工人在生成和评估语言数据时使用的技能、工具和习语。这位研究人员利用一家初创公司的参与者观察，除了话语分析、半结构化访谈和生活史之外，还开发了一款支持人工智能的语言学习应用程序，以探索语言是如何为技术目的创造数据的。此外，该项目询问员工的经历、职业轨迹和观点如何影响他们在整个过程中做出的决定。通过研究语言劳动和工作者对语言的理解如何影响语言的产生，本论文的研究有助于社会科学对技术的研究。此外，该项目进一步揭示了在日益数字化的世界中劳动力的性质变化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This dissertation project seeks to further understanding of the labor involved in producing language technologies, such as chatbots, large language models, and other artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled technologies. By focusing on the experiences of workers who create, curate, and label linguistic data, the researcher illuminates how everyday labor and decision-making shape new technologies as well as their social and cultural impacts. In addition to training a doctoral student in research methods and data analysis, this project improves public understanding of digital technologies and the data that animate them. Findings from the research will be shared with academic audiences across varied disciplines and with non-governmental organizations related to digital labor, language, and data. This project focuses on how language is valued and transformed in the context of producing new digital technologies. Specifically, the research examines the skills, tools, and rubrics used by various workers in the tech industry to generate and evaluate linguistic data. The researcher uses participant observation with a startup that is creating an AI-enabled language learning app, in addition to discourse analysis, semi-structured interviews, and life histories, to explore how language is made into data for technological ends. Additionally, the project asks how the experiences, career trajectories, and perspectives of workers inform the decisions they make throughout this process. In doing so, this dissertation research contributes to the social scientific study of technology by investigating how linguistic labor and workers’ understandings of language shape production. Moreover, this project sheds further light on the shifting nature of labor within an increasingly digital world.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.