A Hollywood Screenwriter's Descent Into AI Training Gig Work
By
Ruth Fowler
The bagel they save for the regulars. Don't skim, savour.
Summary
A Hollywood screenwriter describes their experience working as an AI trainer on gig platforms after the TV industry contracted. The author details the dehumanizing nature of AI training work—annotating data, generating explicit content, and testing chatbots—while noting that many displaced creative professionals are now secretly fueling the very AI systems that threaten their careers. The piece serves as a first-person exposé on the hidden human labor behind AI and the exploitation of skilled workers in the gig economy.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledMy name on the platform is ri611. Or h924092b12ee797f, depending on who's paying me.
For screenwriters like me—and job seekers all over—AI gig work is the new waiting tables.
In eight months, I've done 20 of these soul-crushing contracts for five different platforms. It's bad.
I generate anime sex scenes and decapitate young women, coax LLMs into giving me recipes for bombs
Everyone Who Used to Make TV Is Now Secretly Training AI
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