Key findings
- 1
5 lawsuits over the pay, classification or treatment of AI data workers were filed from 1 Jan 2023 to 10 Oct 2026; the latest step in any case was on 10 Aug 2026 (Schuster v. Scale AI: voluntary dismissal).
- 2
8 laws or regulatory steps touch this work, the latest on 19 Aug 2026: Kenya National Assembly passes outsourcing-liability amendments.
- 3
9 labour actions and layoffs of AI raters, tutors or annotators are recorded, the latest on 12 Sep 2025 (xAI lays off about 500 data annotators (generalist AI tutors)).
- 4
Scale AI is named in the most events (10: lawsuit, settlement, layoff and investigation).
- 5
2025 has the most events so far (13).
Figure 1
Lawsuits, rulings, investigations, regulation and labour actions
What legal and regulatory events concern the people who train AI, and where do they stand?
Sample. 30 events from 1 Jan 2023 to 10 Oct 2026, each from the court record, agency, legislation or outlet linked beside it.
An allegation in a complaint is a claim, not a finding: the status says what a court or agency has decided, as of the date given.
Compiled by. AITraining.jobs Research, Lawsuits, Regulation and Labour Actions in AI Training Work, reviewed 10 Oct 2026.
Figure 2
Events by year and kind
Is legal and regulatory activity around AI data work growing?
| Year | Regulation | Lawsuit | Settlement | Layoff | Investigation | Labour action | Ruling | All |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 2024 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| 2025 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 13 |
| 2026Small sample | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
Sample. The same 30 events, by the year they happened.
The current year runs to the review date.
Compiled by. AITraining.jobs Research, Lawsuits, Regulation and Labour Actions in AI Training Work, reviewed 10 Oct 2026.
Figure 3
Events by company
Which companies are named in the most events?
| Company | Events | Kinds |
|---|---|---|
| Scale AI | 10 | lawsuit, settlement, layoff and investigation |
| Meta | 8 | regulation, labour action, ruling, lawsuit and layoff |
| Sama | 8 | regulation, ruling, labour action, lawsuit and layoff |
| Outlier | 5 | lawsuit |
4 | layoff and labour action | |
| GlobalLogic | 2 | layoff and labour action |
| HireArt | 2 | settlement and investigation |
| Majorel | ruling and lawsuit | |
| Remotasks | 2 | lawsuit and layoff |
| Accenture | labour action | |
| Appen | layoff | |
| OpenAI | labour action | |
| Surge AI | lawsuit | |
| TELUS Digital | labour action | |
| TikTok | labour action | |
| Upwork | investigation | |
| xAI | layoff |
Sample. Events naming a company, from 1 Jan 2023 to 10 Oct 2026. An event naming two companies counts for both.
Compiled by. AITraining.jobs Research, Lawsuits, Regulation and Labour Actions in AI Training Work, reviewed 10 Oct 2026.
For labs, data vendors and researchers
Buy the data behind this report
The figures above are a summary. Behind them are records we collect ourselves, every day:
9,572 roles tracked, each with its history
Every role on 29 job boards, read daily since 13 Jul 2026: its pay and place, and the first and last day it was open.
6,200 apply clicks in 28 days
Which roles people actually apply to, by field, pay and kind of work. It happens on this site, so nobody else can count it.
39 lab and vendor hiring boards
The job boards of 25 AI labs and 14 human-data vendors, read every day: who is hiring for human data, and who is hiring to buy it.
What you can buy
The records
The rows behind any figure, with their history, not only the totals.
A regular feed
The same figures every week or month, as files.
A custom cut or benchmark
Your countries, languages or fields, or your own platform against the market.
Method and definitions
Court records, agency announcements, official journals and reporting by major outlets, each linked beside its event. Every row links the publication it is taken from, with the figure as that publication states it; nothing is estimated or converted. Each figure states what it includes beneath it.
- Lawsuit
- A complaint filed in court. What it alleges is a claim, not a finding; later steps in the same case (a motion, a dismissal, a settlement) are listed as their own events.
- Ruling and settlement
- A court's decision, or a settlement as approved or announced.
- Investigation
- An inquiry by a labour or other agency, as announced or reported.
- Regulation
- A law, directive or official guidance that governs training data or platform work, dated when it was adopted or takes effect.
- Labour action and layoff
- A petition, union filing or campaign by data workers, and documented mass cuts of raters, tutors or annotators.
- Status
- Where the event stands according to the latest source found, with that source's date.
What this data cannot tell you
- Compiled from public sources: an event that was never announced or reported is missing, and private companies' figures are what they or the press stated, not audited.
- Cases settled privately or sent to arbitration may never publish an outcome, so a status can stay open.
- Content-moderation cases are included where the same companies and workers do AI data work; the tracker does not cover every labour case in the outsourcing industry.
How the job feeds are read and roles are classified: site methodology. How fresh, complete and consistent the data is, checked every day: data quality and coverage.
Editions
The live report is the dataset as last reviewed; new events are added as they are published. Each complete month is also published as an edition, frozen two days after the month ends, so a figure you cite from an edition never moves.
- Live dataAs last reviewed
Cite and reuse
Free to quote, chart and republish under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. Live figures change daily: cite a monthly edition for numbers that will read the same later, or keep the access date.
Citation
AITraining.jobs (2026). Lawsuits, Regulation and Labour Actions in AI Training Work (live data, 10 Jan 2023 to 10 Oct 2026). https://www.aitraining.team/research/ai-training-work-legal-tracker (accessed 18 Oct 2026)
BibTeX
@misc{aitrainingjobs_ai_training_work_legal_tracker_live,
author = {{AITraining.jobs}},
title = {Lawsuits, Regulation and Labour Actions in AI Training Work (live data, 10 Jan 2023 to 10 Oct 2026)},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://www.aitraining.team/research/ai-training-work-legal-tracker}},
note = {Accessed 18 Oct 2026},
}More research
- Funding and Valuations of AI Training Data CompaniesHow much money has gone into the companies that supply human data to AI labs, and at what valuations?Read the report
- Revenue and Scale of AI Training Data CompaniesHow much revenue do the companies that supply human data to AI labs make, and how many people do they say work for them?Read the report
- What Studies Find About Pay in AI Data WorkWhat have researchers and reporters measured about pay and conditions in data annotation and AI training work, and how does it compare with today's advertised rates?Read the report
- Which AI Labs Are Hiring for Human DataWhich AI labs are hiring for the teams that buy, run and evaluate human data, and for what roles?Read the report
- Who Is Buying AI Training DataWhich AI labs and data vendors have people whose job is to source, license or acquire training data right now?Read the report
- Where Human-Data Vendors Are BuildingHow fast are the human-data vendors hiring their own staff, and for which functions?Read the report
- The State of AI Training PayWhat does AI training work pay, by kind of work and by platform?Read the report