August 5, 2025, adding an edit here to provide the text of this lawsuit, since people have now DM'd me to ask how to join the class. I thought it would be helpful for people to have the actual text so they can examine its claims. You can reach out to this law firm to see what to do about joining: https://clarksonlawfirm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025.05.20-Surge-Labs.pdf
original post follows…
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I'm writing this here so prospective applicants and DATs current workers can know about this lawsuit and the dangers of working for DAT and possibly other data annotation companies. Here is a link to an LA Times article about the lawsuit:
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-05-21/surge-ai-is-latest-san-francisco-start-up-to-face-lawsuit-for-allegedly-misclassifying-data-labeling-workers
SurgeAI seems to be the parent company of DataAnotation Tech, among others. If anyone can confirm this with a definitive source that's better than this, please post it in the comments:
https://time.com/6962608/data-annotation-legit-tech-jobs-ai/
There is no transparency from DataAnnotation to its workers or the public about who it works for, on what, or what these application tests are really testing for, even just for applicants who are not accepted. Contracted workers at DAT are required to do unpaid, ongoing tests, according to their own reports on Reddit. Rejected applicants are not paid for their time and are left hanging—forever. (they are never told that they failed) The work assignment model seems to be like "we unpredictably throw random amounts of royal cake crumbs to the little people from the window of our tufted, golden carriage". The work pays very little per hour (most is around $20) for the kind of detailed, educated, tech-savvy work they offer. And the work is reportedly very spotty or non-existent for some who are accepted. (How do you like doing hours of application work for free, only to be told you are accepted and will now have hourly work but never get any work or payment for hours already given?)
Moreover, DAT lies about the time required to apply as a worker; it claims the test takes about 1 hour. This is laughable considering the test I took required several careful hours of work. (I'm tech savvy and have years of research experience through my main job) After I "passed" that first one, there was at least one other much longer required test that took an entire work day to do correctly with the detail and sourcing requested by DAT. When I signed up to apply, I committed to 1-2 hours of application work for very low, hourly pay, which wasn't great, but it took over 10 hours to do correctly. (perhaps there are multiple tests?) There was no indication of how long the test would be as you were taking it, so you keep thinking, "this has got to be the last question, holy cow!" which is then followed by several other questions as you suppress your growing outrage at their greed. There is no way to know when it will end. (So ask yourself why they make the length such a mystery as you do the test? Is it because no one would agree to do their tests for free if they knew how long they would take and how tedious they are? Is it because they rely on everyone's sunk-costs to propel them through this ridiculous process? Yes, I suspect.)
The entire application took me two days. As I said, they don't tell people if they are rejected so people wait around wondering for weeks. If everything on their platform is so automated, why can't they let people know if they failed the test? This was a choice on their part. Ask yourself why. One develops a growing sense of "I'm being scammed" as one goes through the DAT gauntlet. Further, DAT seems to serve Microsoft's AI, at least according to some online comments, including this article. This is from the above-linked Time article,
*"*Similarly, Taskup.ai, DataAnnotation.tech, and Gethybrid.io are reportedly subsidiaries of Surge AI, another data labeling provider that serves clients including Anthropic and Microsoft"
The reason that's particularly concerning with respect to both human rights and workers' rights is this:
"Several reports have alleged Israel’s use of Microsoft’s AI and cloud services technologies in its attacks against Palestinian civilians and civilian objects, which have been labeled war crimes and crimes against humanity. There is broad agreement among prominent international organizations, scholars, and the international community that these attacks constitute genocide."
link to source: https://afsc.org/newsroom/unprecedented-investor-action-demands-microsoft-answer-reported-involvement-gaza-genocide
which is a quote from the recent article about the unprecedented investor action demanding Microsoft answer for reported involvement in the Gaza genocide. If DAT is involved with any company participating in this, their workers should be informed of this so they can provide informed consent to work there. Currently all of this is hidden from DATs workers. No way to know.
Since DAT lied to me and other applicants about how long and involved its test(s) would be, I'm wondering what else they are keeping from potential and current workers. We should all be concerned about what they are testing, what data they are collecting, how much they profit off of our work and if that work is supporting huge operations that threaten human rights, workers' rights and citizen's privacy along with freedom of speech. (no dissent allowed on their own sub Reddit, by the way and no probing questions)
Since they are reportedly a billion-dollar company, I think they can afford to pay and treat their workers well. I'm sure that this lawsuit will become a quietly negotiated settlement, but we all have to bear in mind that no law firm takes on a class action suit without lots of credible evidence. I think we need to look there for the confirmation of our suspicions, not the outcome of the lawsuit, since DAT's deep pockets can make it go away while they continue operating in the shadows, quietly transforming the future landscape of work. We should all be concerned about what's to come if this kind of black box operation is allowed to continue.
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