Well, not to defend Mookie too much but we know apart from Mitch and that one species that made Bill's ship, true AI is still a mystery in the setting. And there are many jobs where you need proper intelligence rather than 'just some dumb machine'. Of course, those are usually not the kind of jobs you want forced labor in but it's as good a reason as I can think of.
Or sex slaves.

Also, no update, instead an ad with a weirdly high amount of tentacles. Ew?