A global workforce of data annotators train and develop artificial intelligence to make maps of nature. Initially done by hand, the mapping of satellite images is now partially automated. This process involves the repetitive strain of clicking, tracing, and sifting data by annotators, disciplined through training curriculum and organizational hierarchies to see and discriminate from the infinity of possible shapes, textures, and colors. This talk by Cindy Kaiying Lin explores the classification practices of data annotators in the Global South, foregrounding the aches and pains of computer use and the mechanization of scientific analysis recently deemed routine and mundane.
