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Companies Will Now Hire You To Train Your Robot Replacement
Copy me // Image by Kait Cunniff with DALL-E
Silicon Valley may be laying off a lot of people right now due to AI efficiencies, but it’s also hiring for one very specific role — training more AI to take over even more tasks.
Why It Hurts: Agentic AI has reached a point where its next leap forward depends on humans teaching it how to do their jobs. In other words, the latest hiring boom in tech may also be the one that quietly paves the way for mass automation — and ends hiring booms for good.
Behind The Positions: The biggest reason AI could eventually replace human workers, per Axios, is that humans are already training it to do so.
Uber now lets drivers perform “simple AI tasks” to provide the app with more real-world data — a precursor to its planned robotaxi fleet.
Amazon’s new AR glasses for delivery drivers may double as data collectors to help train autonomous delivery bots.
Mercor, an AI recruiting startup, pays professionals like doctors and lawyers to “fine-tune” its systems.
1X Technologies has human operators step in when the company’s home humanoid can’t handle certain tasks — essentially training it how to do them.
OpenAI is partnering with Juilliard students to train its systems to compose professional-sounding music — and with former bankers to automate entry-level finance jobs.
Final Test: For many workers, getting paid to train their replacement may be a tradeoff they can’t afford to turn down. It could also be justified as a way to learn AI, upskill, and find another job. And for some, it may feel like the AI takeover is inevitable — so they might as well make some money while they can before being pushed out for good.
But for others, there may be a conscious decision that training AI is tantamount to actively letting tech win — and that may be a bridge too far. Being for or against AI-powered automation could become the defining cultural clash of the next decade.
Next Job Search: Expect a renewed interest in union organizing — reminiscent of the 1930–1950 era — as workers look for collective ways to push back against corporate automation.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.