Google Lays Off 200 AI Contractors Who Helped Train Its Systems

Google has laid off around 200 contractors working on its artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including Gemini, in a move that many of the impacted staff believe amounts to being replaced by the very systems they helped build.
The contractors—often called “super raters”—were responsible for rating and evaluating AI outputs, creating prompts to test Gemini, and refining summaries generated for Google Search. Their work ensured accuracy, reliability, and safety in the company’s AI responses. Many of them, including qualified researchers, writers, and teachers, said they were underpaid—earning between $18 and $32 an hour—and faced heavy workloads and job insecurity.
Some were directly employed by GlobalLogic, an outsourcing firm, while others were recruited via third-party agencies, leading to significant wage disparities. Reports suggest at least two contractors have filed complaints with the U.S. labour department, alleging they were terminated in retaliation for speaking up about working conditions.
The layoffs highlight the paradox of AI development: human labour remains critical in training and fine-tuning systems, even as those same systems threaten to displace the very people behind them.
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