The workers in the engine room of big tech

The workers in the engine room of big tech

From Tech Life by BBC World Service

April 28, 2026 · 26 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the situation of outsourced tech workers in Kenya and explores the impact of communication styles on artificial intelligence.

We look at revelations about outsourced tech workers in Kenya, and try to find out why more than a thousand of them have been made redundant. Also this week: are you getting the best out of artificial intelligence? Could changing "how" you communicate with AI make a difference? We speak to an author and put his recommendations to an AI test. And we hear from a company turning lamp-posts into data centres. Presenter: Chris Vallance Producer: Tom Quinn (Image: The words "Meta AI" are displayed on a smartphone screen. The phone is resting on a laptop keyboard. Credit: Reuters)

People in this episode

Host: Chris Vallance

Topics covered

  • outsourced tech workers
  • redundancy
  • artificial intelligence
  • communication with AI
  • data centres

Keywords

  • outsourcing
  • tech workers
  • AI communication
  • redundancy
  • data centres

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Meta AI, Reuters

Places: Kenya

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