Meta Cancels Kenyan AI Training Contract After Workers Report Viewing Smart Glasses Sex Content
Meta has ended a major contract with Kenyan AI training firm Sama, resulting in 1,108 job losses. The cancellation comes less than two months after Sama workers reported to Swedish newspapers that they were forced to review graphic content, including intimate moments and sexual acts, filmed by users of Meta's smart glasses.
Meta attributes the contract's termination to Sama failing to meet its operational standards, a claim Sama vehemently rejects. Sama asserts it consistently met all required standards and was never notified of any deficiencies. However, the Africa Tech Workers Movement alleges Meta's decision was a punitive measure against staff for publicly disclosing details of the controversial content review process.
In February, reports in Svenska Dagbladet and Goteborgs-Posten detailed accounts from unnamed data annotators at Sama. These workers, tasked with manually labelling content to train Meta's AI, described seeing everything from private living spaces to explicit imagery, including a woman undressing filmed by a man's glasses.
Meta acknowledged at the time that subcontracted workers might review content shared with Meta AI to improve customer experience, framing it as a standard industry practice. However, these revelations prompted regulatory scrutiny, with the UK's Information Commissioner's Office and Kenya's Office of the Data Protection Commissioner initiating investigations into the privacy implications of the smart glasses.
Naftali Wambalo of the Africa Tech Workers Movement stated his belief that Meta's true concern was not Sama's standards, but rather maintaining
