🤖 AI Summary
記事は、高齢の技術者たちが人工知能（AI）トレーニングに従事することで就労機会を確保しようと努力している現状について報告しています。これらの熟練労働者は、自分の専門分野での雇用機会が狭くなり、生計を維持するためにデータ注釈という形でAIの訓練に関わっています。これは医師やエンジニアなど、専門知識を持つ人々にとって新しい「ブリッジジョブ」になっています。
AIトレーニングには柔軟性があり、迅速な収入を得られ、また知的刺激があるとされていますが、従来の雇用形態から大幅に下位へと転落していることが指摘されています。これらの熟練労働者は、医療や金融などの分野で六桁の給与を受けていたのに比べ、AIトレーニングは時給20ドルから100ドルを超える高報酬がある場合もありますが、契約ベースであることから収入と勤務時間が不安定です。また、雇用保証もありません。
一方で、テキサス・アンド・メイズ大学のジョナナ・ラヘイ教授は、年齢差別的な採用や労働結果について研究しており、「ブリッジジョブ」と呼ぶ低い給与と軽い業務が退職に近づく人材たちに生き残るために必要な経済基盤を提供していると言います。
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: [Five skilled workers aged 50 and older spoke] to the Guardian about how, after struggling to find work in their fields, they have turned to an emerging and growing category of work: using their expertise to train artificial intelligence models. Known as data annotation, the work involves labeling and evaluating the information used to train AI models like Open AI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini. A doctor, for example, might review how an AI model answers medical questions to flag incorrect or unsafe responses and suggest better ones, helping the system learn how to generate more accurate and reliable responses. The ultimate goal of training is to level up AI models until they're capable of doing a job as well as a human could -- meaning they could someday replace some of these human workers.
The companies behind AI training, such as Mercor, GlobalLogic, TEKsystems, micro1 and Alignerr, operate large contractor networks staffed by people like Ciriello. Their clients include tech giants like OpenAI, Google and Meta, academic researchers and industries including healthcare and finance. For experienced professionals, AI training contracts can be a side hustle -- or a temporary fallback following a layoff -- where top experts can, in some cases, earn over $180 an hour. But that's on the high end. For some older workers [...], it represents another thing entirely: a last refuge in a brutal job market that is harder to stay in, or re-enter, the older they get. For many of them, whether or not they're training their AI replacements in their professions is besides the point. They need the work now.
[...] "There's just a lot of desperation out there," Johnson said. As opportunities narrow, many turn to what Joanna Lahey, a professor at Texas A&M University who studies age discrimination and labor outcomes, calls "bridge jobs" -- lower-paying, less demanding roles that help workers stay financially afloat as they approach retirement. Historically, that meant taking temp assignments, retail and fast-food work and gig roles like Uber and food delivery. Now, for skilled workers -- engineers, lawyers, nurses or designers, for example -- using their expertise for AI data training is becoming the new bridge job. "[AI] training work may be better in some ways than those earlier alternatives," Lahey told the Guardian.
AI training can offer flexibility, quick income and intellectual engagement. But it's often a clear step down. Professionals in fields such as software development, medicine or finance typically earn six-figure salaries that come with benefits and paid leave, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to online job postings, AI training gigs start at $20 an hour, with pay increasing to between $30 and $40 an hour. In some cases, AI trainers with coveted subject matter expertise can earn over $100 an hour. AI training is contract-based, though, meaning the pay and hours are unstable, and it often doesn't come with benefits.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
ログイン
