Google contractors objected to reading obscene Bard prompts — now they’re unionizing
Illustration: The Verge
A group of Google contract workers who helped train the company’s Bard AI chatbot and write Google Help articles voted overwhelmingly to form a union on Monday. The workers, who are contracted to work for Google through Accenture, unionized to secure better working conditions and protections.
The contractors will join the Alphabet Workers Union, the labor organization that represents employees at Google and its Alphabet parent company. They first started unionization efforts in June after they were directed to work on the then-unannounced Bard chatbot. As part of their efforts to help train the bot, they were asked to “handle obscene, graphic and offensive prompts,” according to a report from Bloomberg.
When one of the contractors filed…
