Humans In The Loop

The documentary Humans in the Loop (2024) explores the often invisible human labour behind AI systems. Focusing on data annotation work carried out in different global contexts, the film offers a critical perspective on the social, economic and ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence.

The film directed and written by Aranya Sahay is based on a real phenomenon happening in various indigenous regions of India, where tech companies have established backend offices for «data labeling.» Data labeling is a process that involves meta-tagging thousands of images and videos to teach an algorithm to recognize and differentiate between objects—essentially, becoming the first step in machine learning. It is produced by Museum of Imagined futures under The Storiculture fellowship.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Mathivanan Rajendran, producer of the film, and an Karin Schwiter, Department of Geography at UZH and DIZH Public Data Lab.

This event is organised by ZHAW digital, ZHdK Institute for the Performing Arts and Film and DIZH.