To overcome the continuous economic depression, the government introduced the Korean version of the New Deal. Just as the New Deal was implemented by President Roosevelt of the United States to break through the Great Depression, the former government declared the Digital New Deal policy. The national movement revitalized the digital industry and brought huge support for some data management companies. The AI industry has faced another golden age thanks to the government’s support.
To correct AI’s biased learning and revise the wrong output, a human monitor has been hired. Also, to generate AI-friendly data that can effectively train a model in the work of processing data, or attaching keywords to data, is in high demand. It marks the emergence of a new job title called “Data Mining”.
As part of the Digital New Deal policy, the previous government invested in and supported big data companies, and people started data mining to earn more money. Demanding some effort and training, data mining is attractive to the public. It has little restriction in terms of work environment and enables telecommuting. As a result, data mining as a side job has gained sensational popularity.
Regardless of how promising the business is, there always exists a dark side. The data managing company Crowdworks has been criticized recently for unethical contracts. Crowdworks is a subcontractor of the huge platform company Naver, which classifies and processes data on behalf of Naver. The controversial point is that they defined data labeling workers as freelancers. Freelancers differ from laborers. Freelancers do not have fixed commute times and are not under the company’s direction and supervision. However, those who worked for Crowdworks worked from home, but had prescribed working hours and were free from the supervision of the company. They had detailed rules to follow. It seems they are more like laborers than freelancers.
Companies can cleverly avoid the Labor Standards Act by defining laborers as freelancers. Freelancers do not receive weekly holiday allowances, annual allowances, or laborer insurance since they are not under labor protection. Even if the company informs the unilateral termination of the contract, it is not an unfair dismissal of workers, but a reasonable termination of the agreement between freelancers and the company. It is an efficient method for the company, but it is cruel for workers. With the emergence of new industrial areas, new occupations are also emerging. It seems the revision of the old law, in order to protect AI workers, is necessary.
