Meet the journalists training the AI models that might replace them

“If [models] were a vehicle, AI would be the car and humans would be the fuel behind the whole thing,” says one of the reporters who’s worked for Meta. When looking to employ people to train their systems, AI companies are effectively looking for people to do editorial work: judging whether text is clear, accurate, well-structured, and natural. Many AI training job descriptions ask contributors to ensure the “accuracy, clarity, and natural flow” of AI generated chatbot responses. Others ask them to “write detailed top-tier original content that demonstrates great creativity” to improve the performance of models. Some even seek applicants with professional writing experience such as journalists and editors. Essentially, companies are looking for people who can write well, edit carefully, and make judgment calls about tone, audience, and quality – skills journalists use every day. With Generative AI adding to the difficulties facing freelancers , it is no surprise that several journalists have been lured to use their skills to train the models that are restructuring their industry. I spoke to four freelance journalists in Canada, India, Germany and the United States who have taken these kinds of jobs. They explain why they did it, what this kind of work entails, and how they see their future in the world they are helping to create. 1. How journalists train AI models Darius Osborne was doing everything right to set up his journalism career. He wrote for his university newspaper, he worked in newsrooms as an intern over his summer breaks, and he even got a couple of scholarships while at Howard University in Washington DC. But after he graduated he didn’t get an entry-level journalism staff role at a newsroom. The best job he could get was as a data labelling analyst for Meta. “The process of applying for journalism jobs is completely horrible”, he said. “I was scrambling after college and I was just applying, applying, applying. I turned out to be one of the more blessed people.” The process he describes led to a few freelance roles for outlets in the United States, but he was also recruited by Meta to work at training their AI model. This job essentially consists of reviewing AI-generated videos, prompts or hooks, and labelling whether they meet quality standards by checking for clarity, visual artifacts, surreal-looking errors, or inappropriate content. While this job isn’t in journalism, Osborne said it’s allowed him to have the financial stability to continue freelancing in his free time. “I feel like I’m not using journalism skills at all,” said Osborne. “It’s a job, like everybody else has to have, to be able to support themselves. Sometimes people aren’t able to work the exact job they hoped to get right out of college, but my goal is to work and stabilise myself until I get to that point.” This is not a unique circumstance. In Canada, Khaleda Khan spent four to five months searching for entry-level media work after graduating in late 2024 before joining xAI as a trainer for the company’s AI chatbot, Grok. Similarly to Osborne, throughout university she spent her free time freelancing and interning for major publications in the country. When she graduated, she was looking for any entry-level opportunity in media when her brother sent her a posting that matched her writing, research, and multilingual skills. For the six months Khan was at xAI, her job centered on improving AI systems through a mix of transcription, linguistic review, and quality control or “being an editor of a robot.” For example, she corrected Grok’s transcription data across global accents, worked to train Grok to speak and understand languages beyond English (including Hindi and Urdu), reviewed AI-generated videos for visual and creative errors, and helped refine model outputs by identifying unnatural phrasing or tone issues. … Read more