Forbes: How AI Is Upending The Freelance World

[highplainsdem]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/2023/04/20/ive-never-hired-a-writer-better-than-chatgpt-how-ai-is-upending-the-freelance-world/
Archive page: https://archive.ph/D4KoG

Melissa Shea hires freelancers to take on most of the basic tasks for her fashion-focused tech startup, paying $22 per hour on average for them to develop websites, transcribe audio and write marketing copy. In January 2023, she welcomed a new member to her team: ChatGPT. At $0 an hour, the chatbot can crank out more content much faster than freelancers and has replaced three content writers she would have otherwise hired through freelancing platform Upwork.

“I'm really frankly worried that millions of people are going to be without a job by the end of this year,” says Shea, cofounder of New York-based Fashion Mingle, a networking and marketing platform for fashion professionals. “I’ve never hired a writer better than ChatGPT.”

Shea has not posted a job on Upwork since she discovered ChatGPT (though she still has five freelancers working for her). After it was released in November 2022, ChatGPT amassed more than 100 million users, sparked an AI arms race at companies like Microsoft, Google and Amazon and has given rise to a flurry of AI startups. And for small businesses looking to trim costs, the free tool can automate swaths of their operations, providing a cheaper alternative to freelance workers. Built on recent advances in generative AI, ChatGPT and its image-based sibling DALL-E 2 can carry out work that spans most of the freelancing spectrum, from writing articles and compiling research to designing graphics, coding and decrypting financial documents.

Now, freelancers who are less experienced and don’t offer specialized skills stand to lose their gigs, according to five clients Forbes interviewed. But rather than steering clear of the AI tool that could make them obsolete, more and more freelancers are relying on ChatGPT to do some if not all their work for them. Clients on job marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr are being flooded with nearly identical project proposals written by ChatGPT. A bitter side effect: it’s making clients dubious of the authenticity of work turned in by freelancers and causing transactional disputes and mistrust in the freelancing community.

-snip-

Her “I’ve never hired a writer better than ChatGPT" comment was the start of the full headline. I didn't include it in the thread title both because the full headline is too long, and because later descriptions of ChatGPT writing in that article - calling it generic, drab and crappy - contradict her praise of it.

But what it is, is cheap. Free to use yourself. And according to this article, professional freelancers using AI and editing the AI results slightly are now charging as little as $5 an hour.

The transactional disputes are apparently of the type I've been seeing freelance writers complaining about on Reddit - AI detectors that AREN'T reliable misidentifying human-written work as AI or partially AI and the client refusing to pay, or demanding a rewrite (see https://www.reddit.com/r/freelanceWriters/comments/12aga2n/being_asked_for_a_refund_because_my_writing_was/ ). Those AI detectors are wreaking havoc in schools, too, missing AI-written assignments and giving false positives to human-written text (see https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217838043 for links to a couple of Reddit threads about this, including one about the Constitution being labeled AI writing).

This is what ChatGPT is doing to writers and writing, both professional and student writing.

And ChatGPT has been available less than 5 months.

[Baked Potato]

1. The Trades will be gold. Nt

[highplainsdem]

2. Until robots are improved enough, especially with AI.

And the trades can't absorb all the creatives and service sector workers who are likely to be replaced by AI.

I'm seeing more and more social media posts, even from people very enthusiastic about AI, saying we'll need a UBI soon. But no ideas how we'll get there.

And while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been saying for years that a UBI will be necessary, the only details I've seen that he's talked about are such a low level, and so unrealistic (he was talking about having fusion so power would be free, food being very cheap because of free power, etc., in his fantasy economy), that he's unlikely to be able to sell that idea to people. And as far as I know, he hasn't been talking about that nearly as much now that OpenAI, partnering with Microsoft, is racing to make as much money as possible from AI, and to hell with all the people whose livelihoods are being threatened.

We could see massive unemployment, thanks to AI, by the 2024 election. Along with a tsunami of misinformation and deepfakes, including a lot from other countries, bad actors who'll be only too happy to exploit AI to upend the US government as well as our economy.

[Baked Potato]

3. Nothing will be proactive.

I am forever pessimistic and I think CEOs only care about personal pleasure and profits and actually find joy in screwing over labor… people and communities be damned.

I think corporations despise people as being just a drag on their bottom lines, with the natural uncertainty of humanity being the main driver of their ill will.

The can of unrest is being kicked through the graveyard, as whistling comes through the rusty holes which have permeated from years of neglect.

I’ve mentioned before… there is no hidey-hole where the billionaires are safe.

There is still time to fix the coming problems. UBI will be necessary. IMO.

Thanks for keeping AI on the front burner.

I think the corruption and malfeasance of T***p and his ilk is widespread and disgustingly deep rooted. IMO, there are actors positioned worldwide ready to cause chaos and calamity when directed, with the goal of destabilizing world peace.

[Calista241]

4. AI is going to upend every economy and country in the world.