27 May 2024

As an independent contractor, I often scan Indeed and Idealist for contract projects. I am particularly interested in projects that require a combination of skills, such as Business Analysis, Project Management and Spanish translation or marketing.

Yesterday, I found an interesting post for AI training and various fields. It took me a moment to realize what this company (Outlier), needed. "We have several open projects where we are looking for talented writers to help train generative artificial intelligence models to become better writers."

Yep they're coming for my jobs.

As an experienced translator, I am also a copy writer and copy editor. The AI training will help the generative AI systems to do the work that I do. So although this contract job looks appealing in the short term, I am a long-term thinker. I recognize that taking this job is literally taking money off the table for me and other professionals. I will not work myself out of a job. As such, I am boycotting jobs that are meant to take over the jobs of others like me.

For those who might comment, "Well, someone else will take the job if you won't!" I agree that it will happen however, that is the decision of a short-term thinker. At the end of the day, I recognize that my small protest will not have an impact because AI is where the money is.

There's no stopping AI and the machines. Like Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI said: “I think AI is going to be the greatest force for economic empowerment and a lot of people getting rich we have ever seen.”

(and by "a lot of people" he meant a few men who look just like him.)