AI may replace jobs, but it’s also creating a new one: fixing AI’s mistakes

There has been much talk that artificial intelligence will eliminate jobs. And for the most part that is coming true with a recent study finding that there has been a 13% reduction in employment for young people just getting started in the workplace.

Another report out of MIT found that the technology is replacing outsourced workers more than permanent workers. However, it also noted that 95% of businesses are getting zero return on their investment in generative AI pilots reports NBC News.

This may have something to do with them having to hire the services of the very people the technology is displacing in order to fix sloppy work produced by AI.

Workers displaced by AI getting paid to fix the tech’s mistakes

Generative AI can quickly produce images and text, as well as code. However, the final product isn’t always up to snuff.

Images can turn out sloppy and lack adequate definition. Writing churned out by AI can overuse certain vocabulary and punctuation that doesn’t appear “remotely human at all.” And even though the technology can code, the results can be littered with bugs that make apps unstable or completely unusable.

This results in companies having to hire people to go back and fix their AI’s mistakes. However, many have already spent most of their budget investing in the AI systems, and they are averse to forking out more money.

Creatives getting paid less for fixing AI’s mistakes

While the creatives that spoke to NBC News were happy to have the work, they said that companies aren’t willing to pay them what they would normally charge to do a project from scratch. In many cases this is because companies think that since AI has already done most of the work, sprucing up AI’s sloppy product doesn’t require much effort.

Kiesha Richardson, a Georgia-based freelance writer, told NBC News that because AI tends to pump out generic responses that don’t give a thorough response to the enquiry, she still has to do research. Also, polishing up the text so that it sounds more human, is just as demanding as writing the entire article herself, she explained.

She expressed her concerns that AI is being used to cut costs, “and one of those costs is my pay,” she shared. “I have some colleagues who are adamant about not working with AI. But I’m like, ‘I need money. I’m taking it,’” she told NBC News.

Fortunately though, she noted that companies are waking up to the fact that “they can’t really do it without humans.”

“They’re not getting the content that they want from AI, so hopefully we’ll stick around a little longer,” she added.

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