
Amazon Prime Free Trial
FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button and confirm your Prime free trial.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited FREE Prime delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
Buy new:
$15.99$15.99
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Save with Used - Very Good
$14.79$14.79
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Cardboard Crown

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Follow the authors
OK
Ghost Work (international Edition): How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass Paperback – May 7, 2019
Purchase options and add-ons
In the spirit of Nickel and Dimed, a necessary and revelatory expose of the invisible human workforce that powers the web—and that foreshadows the true future of work.
Hidden beneath the surface of the web, lost in our wrong-headed debates about AI, a new menace is looming. Anthropologist Mary L. Gray and computer scientist Siddharth Suri team up to unveil how services delivered by companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Uber can only function smoothly thanks to the judgment and experience of a vast, invisible human labor force. These people doing "ghost work" make the internet seem smart. They perform high-tech piecework: flagging X-rated content, proofreading, designing engine parts, and much more. An estimated 8 percent of Americans have worked at least once in this “ghost economy,” and that number is growing. They usually earn less than legal minimums for traditional work, they have no health benefits, and they can be fired at any time for any reason, or none.
There are no labor laws to govern this kind of work, and these latter-day assembly lines draw in—and all too often overwork and underpay—a surprisingly diverse range of workers: harried young mothers, professionals forced into early retirement, recent grads who can’t get a toehold on the traditional employment ladder, and minorities shut out of the jobs they want. Gray and Suri also show how ghost workers, employers, and society at large can ensure that this new kind of work creates opportunity—rather than misery—for those who do it.
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarper Business
- Publication dateMay 7, 2019
- Dimensions6 x 9 x 0.79 inches
- ISBN-100358120578
- ISBN-13978-0358120575
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Editorial Reviews
Review
Fordham University Center's Book Prize, 2019 A 2019 Financial Times Critics Choice "Revealing...this compassionate and informative study is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of work." —Publishers Weekly “Ghost Work adeptly raises the alarm about an emerging type of dehumanizing work, where invisible workers serve as cogs in the great machine of our latest information technology, entirely beholden to software and artificial intelligence.”—Martin Ford, bestselling author of Rise of the Robots and Architects of Intelligence “An uncompromising, data-based, yet heartfelt exploration of how digital technologies have allowed corporations to write human beings even further out of the value equation, as well as how we can restore dignity and prosperity to the lives of the invisible workforce. The first step in building solidarity is simply knowing there are people out there.” —Douglas Rushkoff, author of Team Human and Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus. "Ghost Work is a stunning book, just the wake-up call we need to shatter the credulous belief that artificial intelligence is ‘replacing' workers. As Gray and Suri masterfully demonstrate, work isn’t disappearing in the age of AI; it is being hidden. Scrupulously researched and deeply humane, Ghost Work is at once a sobering reminder of what could happen if we allow algorithmic cruelty and exploitative labor practices to flourish and an inspiring call to defend the dignity and value of human labor." –Virginia Eubanks, author of Automating Inequality "The Wachowskis got it wrong. Humans aren't batteries for The Matrix, we are computer chips. In this fascinating book, Mary Gray and Siddharth Suri show us just how integral human online task workers are to the development of AI and the seamless operation of all the great internet services. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand our technology-infused future." —Tim O'Reilly, CEO, O'Reilly Media “A remarkable book. As one of the millions of hidden workers of the world, I know this book gets to the heart of what it means to be a ghost worker. It reveals the true reality of work life for the people earning a living as digital pieceworkers. The authors also propose several technical and social fixes to collaboratively build a better future for everyone working in the shadows.” —Rochelle LaPlante, digital labor rights activist “Ghost Work is groundbreaking, a painstaking portrait of an invisible world. We can only choose a different future of work if we truly see today’s workers." —Felicia Wong, President and CEO, Roosevelt Institute, Author, The Hidden Rules of Race: Barriers to an Inclusive Economy "If you think you know what's going on with digital labor, think again. This pathbreaking book is sure to re-set the debate about technology and the future of work. Based on extensive ethnography and survey research, Ghost Work is a must-read for anyone who cares about a humane future for those of us who need to work for a living. A game-changer." —Juliet B. Schor, Professor of Sociology, Boston College “Mary Gray and Siddharth Suri show us the human face to ‘ghost work’ -- the invisible and often alienating piece work that makes today's digital economy run. The people working today for Mechanical Turk and similar platforms are the canaries in the coal mine, revealing how more and more of us will be working in the years to come." —Henry J —
About the Author
SIDDHARTH SURI is a computational social scientist whose research interests lie at the intersection of computer science, behavioral economics and crowdsourcing. His early work analyzed the relationship between network topology and human behavior. Since then he has become one of the leaders in designing, building, and conducting “virtual lab” experiments using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Most recently, he has been studying the behavior and dynamics of the crowd workers themselves.
Product details
- Publisher : Harper Business (May 7, 2019)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0358120578
- ISBN-13 : 978-0358120575
- Item Weight : 12.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 9 x 0.79 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #646,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #508 in International Economics (Books)
- #529 in Social Aspects of Technology
- #11,050 in Engineering (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Siddharth Suri is a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research - AI. Sid is a computational social scientist whose work lies at the intersection of computer science, behavioral economics, crowdsourcing, and the gig economy. His early work analyzed the relationship between network topology and human behavior. Since then he became one of the leaders in designing, building, and conducting "virtual lab" experiments using Amazon's Mechanical Turk. He used this methodology to study cooperation, honesty, group problem solving, and display advertising. Most recently, he has been studying the gig workers who power many modern apps, websites, and AI systems which culminated in a book he coauthored titled Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass, due out in May 2019.
Sid earned his Ph.D. in Computer and Information Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007 under the supervision of Michael Kearns. After that he was a postdoctoral associate working with Jon Kleinberg in the Computer Science department at Cornell University and then he moved to the Human & Social Dynamics group at Yahoo! Research led by Duncan Watts. Sid was a founding member of Microsoft Research - New York City and he recently joined the Adaptive Systems and Interaction group of Microsoft Research - AI.
Mary L. Gray is a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research. She is also a Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society Faculty Associate at Harvard University. Mary maintains a faculty position in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering with affiliations in Anthropology and Gender Studies at Indiana University. She trained in anthropology before earning her PhD in Communication from the University of California at San Diego in 2004, under the direction of sociologist Susan Leigh Star. In 2020, Mary was named a MacArthur Fellow for her contributions to anthropology and the study of technology, digital economies, and society.
Mary, an anthropologist and media scholar by training, focuses on how everyday uses of technologies transform people’s lives. Her co-authored book, Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass, explores the lives of people who are paid to train artificial intelligence and, increasingly, serve as “humans in the loop” delivering on-demand information services. Her other books and co-edited volumes include In Your Face: Stories from the Lives of Queer Youth, Queering the Countryside: New Directions in Rural Queer Studies, a Choice Academic Title for 2016, and the award-winning ethnography, Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America, an exploration of how young people in the rural United States use the Internet to craft their identities, local belonging, and connections to broader queer communities.
Mary is a leading expert in the emerging field of AI and ethics, particularly research methods at the intersections of computer and social sciences. She currently chairs the Microsoft Research Ethics Review Program—the only federally-registered institutional review board of its kind in the tech industry. Mary sits on the editorial boards of Cultural Anthropology, Television and New Media, the International Journal of Communication, and Social Media + Society. Her research has been covered by popular press venues, including The Guardian, El Pais, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Nature, The Economist, Harvard Business Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Forbes Magazine. She served on the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association and was the Association’s Section Assembly Convenor from 2006-2010 as well as the co-chair of the Association’s 113th Annual Meeting. Mary currently sits on several boards, including the California Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors, the Executive Board of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R) and Stanford University’s One-Hundred-Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100) Standing Committee, commissioned to reflect on the future of AI and recommend directions for its policy implications.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images

How legions of tech workers around the world may change the work world as we know it
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2019You're surrounded by algorithms, including on this site. It all looks nice and automated, but behind that automation are people who nurture software, translate content, and do all of the small tasks that are needed to make the machines succeed. These workers and their work are invisible... unless you go looking for them. In this deeply researched book, Mary Gray and Sid Suri sat down with the invisible workers behind automation to understand what they do and what their lives work with. Through this grounded analysis, they make a compelling argument for how the future of work does not look like the hyped media stories about robots. Yet, at the same time, they highlight how this "ghost work" reveals cracks in the system that need to be repaired in order to preserve human dignity. This is a must read for anyone who is trying to understand how the economy is transforming in front of our eyes.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2019This is a fantastic, much needed book that anyone interested in technology and labor should pick up. Through rich, insightful fieldwork and analysis it shows the ways workers continue to make up a crucial - albeit often invisible and under protected - part of the chain that keeps the internet, our technologies, and various systems functioning. It's wonderfully written, presenting compelling data, stories, and incisive analysis. A must read.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2019interesting, but nothing earth shattering here
- Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2021As someone who does HITs to supplement my less than okay income, this book captures the struggle of : the amount of time , the sometimes underpaid tasks , and the inconsistency of “ghost work”. My best read of 2021.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2019It is really frightening, a new force of deep slaves is being created by the big powers of AI. The book well describes the ugly process.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2019Excellent book, very important to chart a better path for the future of work.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2019Just had the opportunity to actually hear author, Mary Gray, speak in person about "Ghost Work", detailing the unintended consequences of the digital economy on a new global, largely faceless, workforce. As she described how technology and the internet have given people the flexibility to not be tied to one office or even one company, I related to the freedom that one feels to "be your own boss", and "choose your clients". But this burgeoning "new economy" happens outside the traditional "safety net" that society has relied on companies to provide to their employees. This new era has created new jobs and new employees, but no updated HR department.
By chronicling workers’ stories, the authors identify the shortcomings of this new digital economy, with the hope that structural changes can be made, that may have lasting benefits for freelancers & contractors in other industries as well.
So how will they be assured safe working and living conditions and health care and retirement? The new challenge is figuring out how society values and cares for these workers. Will it take mass labor organizing? Anyone who has worked for a startup or been part of the gig economy will recognize themselves in these stories, and realize this is not the "future of work"; this is the "current status" of work. And the paradigm needs to change.
5.0 out of 5 starsJust had the opportunity to actually hear author, Mary Gray, speak in person about "Ghost Work", detailing the unintended consequences of the digital economy on a new global, largely faceless, workforce. As she described how technology and the internet have given people the flexibility to not be tied to one office or even one company, I related to the freedom that one feels to "be your own boss", and "choose your clients". But this burgeoning "new economy" happens outside the traditional "safety net" that society has relied on companies to provide to their employees. This new era has created new jobs and new employees, but no updated HR department.How legions of tech workers around the world may change the work world as we know it
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2019
By chronicling workers’ stories, the authors identify the shortcomings of this new digital economy, with the hope that structural changes can be made, that may have lasting benefits for freelancers & contractors in other industries as well.
So how will they be assured safe working and living conditions and health care and retirement? The new challenge is figuring out how society values and cares for these workers. Will it take mass labor organizing? Anyone who has worked for a startup or been part of the gig economy will recognize themselves in these stories, and realize this is not the "future of work"; this is the "current status" of work. And the paradigm needs to change.
Images in this review
- Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2019The book is well researched, but far too many paragraphs just end in the middle of a sentence, sometimes in the middle of the opening sentence of a paragraph. This probably isn't even the authors' fault, but this is a "product review" and so I'm reviewing the product.
E.g., a paragraph will end like this: "Due to the legal liabilities associated with 'curating a workforce,' as was discussed in" and then that's it. On to another paragraph, without finishing the sentence, without completing the thought, without any hint of a transition to the next paragraph.
This kind of thing happens several times.
Top reviews from other countries
- Stefan ProReviewed in Germany on January 31, 2021
4.0 out of 5 stars Important Points are missing
While this book overall ist very good, some points are clearly missing:
1) The question is never asked, should this kind of work be done at all or outlawed?
2) Child labor: Since you cannot be sure who is working for you, what about child labor?
3) Colonialism: As stated, the ghost workers are well educated. So the intellectual elite in India is working for American firms?
4) Health Care: the companies should be responsible for their workers, healthcare is a must!