"I Got Paid $22 for Weeks of AI Work" - The Hidden Cost of Training Your AI | Julianne Hickey

Sometimes the most important conversations about AI aren't happening in boardrooms or on conference stages. They're happening in data labelling sweatshops, in schools, and in the quiet moments when we ask ourselves: what are we actually building

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Pope Leo XIV just released his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, and it's about AI. Not the hype. Not the productivity gains. Not the trillion dollar valuations. It's about protecting human dignity in the age of artificial intelligence. And it's a 42,000 word love letter to the world that centres women's voices, women's labour, and women's leadership.

In our first conversation with Julianne, we discussed this encyclical before it was released. Now it's here, Lou has read all 42,000 words of it, and the more he reads, the more women he finds inside it.

In this episode of AI Ready Women, Georgie and Lou sit down again with Julianne Hickey, social justice leader, AI governance expert, and one of the spokespeople for the encyclical in New Zealand. Julianne has met Pope Francis twice, worked in Gaza and Palestine, and now leads AI strategy for a major government organisation. And she's also done something most of us haven't: she signed up to work for a data labelling company to see what the AI supply chain actually looks like from the inside.

What she found was harrowing. And it's the conversation your organisation isn't having. Yet.

This episode is about what happens when we stop asking what AI can do, and start asking what it should do. It's about the hidden workers training AI for a few dollars while someone becomes a trillionaire in the same week. It's about the cognitive disarmament of AI. It's about building a civilisation of love, brick by brick. And it's about why the future of AI isn't just a technical question. It's a spiritual one.
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Connect with Lou Compagnone:

🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loucompagnone/
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Connect with Julianne Hickey:

🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliannehickey/
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CHAPTERS
00:00 The Pope's AI encyclical is finally here

01:10 From a parish council at 17 to AI governance: Julianne's path

02:10 Magnifica Humanitas: a 42,000 word love letter that centres women

03:35 The call to "disarm" AI: military, economic, and cognitive

08:20 The women named as heroes: Montessori, Bhutto, Maathai, Curie

13:25 Education, curiosity, and the lure of the "perfect machine"

16:10 What keeps Georgie up at night: productivity vs people

20:40 Hannah Arendt's warning: totalitarianism, fact, and fiction

22:00 Why women's caution around AI is a strength, not a weakness

24:30 The tension: demanded AI skills vs wanting to slow down

29:10 Why even Microsoft is maxing out on AI

32:05 The IKEA story: retraining people instead of replacing them

37:45 Inside the AI supply chain: Julianne goes in to see for herself

39:35 "Like a Black Mirror episode": $20, and the woman in Nigeria

43:40 A civilisation of love: what magnificent humanity looks like
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If this episode resonated with you, reach out to Julianne, Lou, and Georgie on LinkedIn. Let us know your biggest takeaway. Share what you're doing to protect human dignity in your work. Tell us how you're making sure AI serves people, not the other way around.

And if you know an incredible woman working in AI, ethics, governance, or social justice who should be on this podcast, send us her name. We want to amplify women's voices. We want representation. We want you in the room.

The future belongs to the women who are ready for it.

Let's make sure that's you.

Georgie 💜

#AIReadyWomen #MagnificaHumanitas #PopeAI #WomenInAI #AIEthics #DataLabelling #HumanDignity?