Google’s AI Bot Trained by ‘Scared, Stressed, Underpaid’ Workers (1)

Google’s Bard artificial intelligence chatbot will answer a question about how many pandas live in zoos quickly, and with a surfeit of confidence.

Ensuring that the response is well-sourced and based on evidence, however, falls to thousands of outside contractors from companies including Appen Ltd. and Accenture Plc, who can make as little as $14 an hour and labor with minimal training under frenzied deadlines, according to several contractors, who declined to be named for fear of losing their jobs.

Photographer: Rafael Henrique/Getty Images

The contractors are the invisible backend of the generative AI boom that’s hyped to change everything. Chatbots like Bard ...