[1] The term was coined by anthropologist Mary L. Gray and computer scientist Siddharth Suri in their 2019 book, Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass.
Ghost workers at Amazon have found ways to help each other and self-organize, often through WhatsApp groups where they mobilize to push for changes to the platform.
[5] According to Lilly Irani, an associate professor of labor at the University of California, San Diego, the computer science world and tech companies are invested in producing the image of technological magic.
[2] Her view is that this perception isn't only aimed at the public image of the company but also at investors, who are significantly more likely to back businesses built on scalable technology, rather than unwieldy work forces demanding office space and minimum wages.
[2] In addition, she feels that there is a strong belief that these workers are a stopgap until better AI reduces the need for relying on humans for such tasks.