The Future. Despite only being around for about two years, AI systems like ChatGPT and Midjourney are already taking away a significant number of jobs from freelancers — an issue affecting 38% of Americans. If AI becomes even more widespread, low-skilled, task-driven work may soon only be the purview of chatbots.
Gigs for gigabytesFinding a sustainable amount of freelance work is getting a lot harder thanks to AI, according to research collated by WSJ.
Researchers from universities like Harvard and the University of Hong Kong found that in work where AI does a suitable job — copywriting, illustrating, marketing, coding — job postings on sites like Fiverr and Upwork have dropped as much as 21%.
But it’s not like people are happy with the work — employers are turning around and asking humans to edit, tweak, or revise AI generations.
To add insult to injury, these revision jobs are being offered for far lower than freelancers’ typical rates, and the turnaround times for the work are way faster.
Ironically, there is a silver lining, though. For the jobs where AI can’t replace humans but does make them more productive (like IT and data science), total pay is going up about 40%, says Upwork.
The secret to human success may be proving that you’re indispensable.
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