On the hot heels of the Writers Guild of America ending their summer-long strike, there’s already some controversial job offerings making its rounds. It appears companies fostering machine-learning and large language models (LLMs) have found a crafty way to interweave world domination through artificial intelligence (AI) with a dose of IP integrity.
HR executives are soliciting creative writers for a conveyor belt of hybrid and remote jobs in the emerging field. Appen, Remotasks, and Scale AI are among a number of AI generative firms searching for candidates with advanced degrees to “feed” AI machines an assortment of literary novelties, according to a report from Rest of World.
“Creative writers have a unique expertise that enables us to develop high-quality training data for creative AI generation like poetry, song lyrics and narrative writing,” an Appen spokesperson said.
Recruited employees, who will be compensated by the hour on a contractual basis, are commissioned to supply everything from short stories to poetry, while providing feedback and playing a role in quality control of AI development.
Several experts in the field have admitted that AI models are not yet evolved to surpass human capability in the creation of literary works. AI models can reproduce styles of literary work fed into their databases, but struggle to superiorly innovate or expound upon those foundations. However, that hasn’t been enough to quell growing anxiety, especially since AI is still considered to be in its infantry, leaving room for considerable evolution.
The new job opportunities are likely a response to backlash from the working class who fear AI will minimize their value in the workplace. Other critiques revolve around the technology lacking the originality and creativity of a human author, along with concerns about plagiarism and copyright infringement — a hot topic that has incited lawsuits and union strikes.
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While English-speaking U.S. writers may find it difficult to embrace the new normal AI presents, the training data companies running the show anticipate the initial resistance — hence an emphasis on foreign language skills in most of the published job descriptions.
Firms are taking a competitive stance by pursuing talent with diverse language capabilities in order to train AI models for various markets. The onslaught of new hires will be distributed to the Mount Rushmore of Silicon Valley, including Microsoft, Google, Meta, and OpenAI.
With rates going as high as $50 per hour, it’s just a matter of time before AI’s emulation of human thought and behavior becomes just as commonplace as an all-knowing smartphone or self-driving electric vehicle. Welcome to the future!
