Human-based computation has been criticized as exploitative and deceptive with the potential to undermine collective action.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2010/02/zittrain |title=Minds for Sale |author=Zittrain, Jonathan |access-date=12 May 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2132176.2132186 |title=Exploring the character of participation in social media: the case of Google Image Labeler |author=Jafarinaimi, Nassim |access-date=12 June 2022}}</ref>
In [[social philosophy]] it has been argued that human-based computation is an implicit form of online labour.<ref>{{cite (Mühlhoffweb 2019)|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444819885334|title=Human-aided artificial intelligence: Or, how to run large computations in human brains? Toward a media sociology of machine learning |author=Mühlhoff, Rainer |access-date=12 June 2022}}</ref> The philosopher Rainer Mühlhoff distinguishes five different types of "machinic capture" of human microwork in "hybrid human-computer networks": (1) gamification, (2) "trapping and tracking" (e.g. CAPTCHAs or click-tracking in Google search), (3) social exploitation (e.g. tagging faces on Facebook), (4) information mining and (5) click-work (such as on [[Amazon Mechanical Turk]]).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mühlhoff|first=Rainer|date=2019-11-06|title=Human-aided artificial intelligence: Or, how to run large computations in human brains? Toward a media sociology of machine learning|journal=New Media & Society|volume=22|issue=10|language=en|pages=1868–1884|doi=10.1177/1461444819885334|s2cid=209363848|issn=1461-4448|url=https://depositonce.tu-berlin.de/handle/11303/12510}}</ref> Mühlhoff argues that human-based computation often feeds into [[Deep learning|Deep Learning]]-based [[Artificial intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]] systems, a phenomenon he analyzes as "human-aided artificial intelligence" (Mühlhoff 2019).
