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The Workers at the Frontlines of the AI Revolution
Article

The Workers at the Frontlines of the AI Revolution

The global labor force of outsourced and contract workers are early adopters of generative AI — and the most at risk

Andrew Deck
Medium, 2023
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Offshore workers – from freelance creatives to call center clerks – find that generative AI affects them in different ways. Some boosted their earnings by quickly embracing AI tools. Others worry about layoffs or increased pressure to produce more work for less pay. In this nuanced Medium article, Andrew Deck, a Rest of the World reporter, interviews experts on the interplay between technology and labor as well as far-flung workers to show how generative AI is reshaping work. He draws from a survey of more than 31,000 tech, finance and media workers. His case histories of freelancers who compare their output with and without AI illustrate most vividly this rapid transition.

Summary

New AI tools allow many freelance creative professionals to work faster, but it may force their fees down in the long term.

Outsourcing labor to offshore workforces is nothing new in the Western world. The rise of gig work platforms like Fiverr, 99designs and Upwork has expanded the opportunities for businesses and individuals to contract online for professional work often less expensively than hiring someone in the United States or the United Kingdom. While online freelancers and data workers earn more than they would from local clients, they must pay assignment platforms for access to bid on available work. They find low paying tasks, called “click work,” on such sites as Microworkers, Remotasks and Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Fiverr reports a 1,400% increase in searches for AI-related jobs from the mid-2022 to January 2023. Artists, writers, digital marketers, IT specialists and more are rushing to take advantage of this spike in interest. Many report that AI has...

About the Author

Andrew Deck is a reporter at Rest of World covering digital culture and subcultures with a focus on global social media platforms. This column appeared on Medium.

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