In the bustling landscape of 2023, one writer was riding high on his career wave, excelling at his copywriting job amidst a team of 60 talented individuals. Fast forward a year, and this same writer, under the pseudonym Benjamin Miller, found himself in a desolate battlefield where he was the last human standing, surrounded by AI imitators he was expected to shepherd and refine. The company’s decision to embrace artificial intelligence as a cost-cutting measure turned his world upside down, as he shared with the BBC.
Initially, the company’s workflow involved feeding a headline into an AI model, which would then churn out an outline for the team to polish, with Miller responsible for the final edits. The automation, however, was far from perfect; it was shoddy at best. As a result, most of Miller’s colleagues were let go, leaving him to shoulder the burden of multiple roles. He found himself performing the Herculean task of cleaning up AI-generated content, making the writing sound less awkward, and removing the bizarrely formal or overly enthusiastic language that the models often produced.
Miller’s predicament was not unique. Across industries, the rise of AI has led to a new form of grunt work, where human employees are tasked with making AI outputs presentable. This phenomenon is evident even in the service industry, where underpaid, outsourced workers toil away behind the scenes to power the “AI” drive-thrus at fast food chains like Checkers. The human touch, it seems, is indispensable, but it comes at the cost of tedious, poorly compensated labor. US-based copywriter Catrina Cowart echoed these sentiments, describing the process of editing AI text as “tedious, horrible work” that pays next to nothing.
Several months into this grand AI experiment, the company decided to take the final leap towards full automation, and even Miller was shown the door. Jobless and facing a grim job market, the best opportunity he could find was with a firm dedicated to making AI writing harder to detect. It was a cruel twist of fate, but one that highlighted the growing complexities of the job market in an AI-driven world.
Miller’s story serves as a cautionary tale for industries rushing to adopt artificial intelligence without considering the human cost. While AI promises efficiency and cost savings, it often falls short in delivering the nuance and quality that only human touch can provide. The rise of AI has not only displaced skilled workers but also created a new class of underpaid, overworked editors struggling to make AI-generated content palatable.
As we move forward, it is crucial to strike a balance between leveraging technology and preserving human jobs. The future of work should not be one where humans are merely cogs in an AI machine, but rather where technology and human expertise coexist symbiotically. Only then can we ensure that the advancements of AI lead to a brighter, more equitable future for all.
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