# kaal:claim:5095633-021

**Claim.** Human-in-the-loop annotation, including under ethical labor models, imposes financial and time costs large enough to slow the pace at which AI models can be upgraded.

**Type.** failure  **Support.** argued

**Holds when.**

- pipelines that depend on human annotators

**Source quote.**

> The reliance on human annotators, even with companies striving for ethical labor practices like CloudFactory, involves significant costs, both financial and in terms of time, which can slow down the pace of AI model upgrades.

**From.** Wulf A. Kaal, *Artificial Intelligence The Final Frontier* (2025), 4.2. Practical Shortcomings, page 13

**Cite as.** Wulf A. Kaal, Artificial Intelligence The Final Frontier (2025). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5095633

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `cbb484711f89bcefc9fc6a5730a1ed0a3f764d7999ad9b6f7d8ea05634c26c63` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Kaal%20-%202025%20-%20Artificial%20Intelligence%20The%20Final%20Frontier.pdf

**Failure mode.** human-in-the-loop cost drag  (family: ai-oversight-and-alignment-gap)

**Topics.** institutional-design

**Keywords.** human-in-the-loop, annotation-costs, impact-sourcing, throughput

**Canonical form.** This markdown file is the canonical hashed representation of the claim. Its sha256 is the content hash used for attestation.