Abstract In the production of artificial intelligence products that appeal to human–computer interaction, cognitive labor related to human abilities such as recognition, judgment and creation has become a dominant labor form. In data labeling work, the labor control goal of cognitive labor is to transform the natural cognition of the labeler into generative cognition that matches a computer program to efficiently produce standardized data that meets the needs of the computer. In this regard, management subtly manipulates data labelers’ cognitive behavior through cognitive standardization, cognitive feedback and cognitive acceleration; the latter resists alienated labor by means of output restrictions, quarrels and job hopping. From physical to cognitive labor, the object of management control changes from the way workers move their bodies to their brains’ cognitive patterns, and labor control strategies move from mechanical body discipline to flexible cognitive guidance.
Jia et al. (Sat,) studied this question.