Real-life ‘Matrix’: Working for the AI overlords

The dystopian future is here. Much like in the movie “The Matrix,” where humans are serving the robots, a variety of AI companies would like you to work for them. And they’ll pay you to do it — for now. (Bwah-ha-ha-ha!) What’s it like working for the AI overlords? Platforms such as Data Annotation, Outlier, Appen and Remotasks offer remote microjobs where freelance “trainers” help refine AI systems by labeling data, answering questions or evaluating responses. The work is typically broken into short, repetitive tasks that you can do remotely at your leisure. That can make training AI models a convenient side hustle. But can you actually make money doing this? And is it worth your time?

Working for the AI overlords

The short answer is “sometimes.” The pay depends on which company you work for and what you’re enlisted to do. Two AI training firms pay fairly good wages for residents of the U.S. and Canada to help AI models learn complex science, math, physics, programming and chemistry questions. And you can also sometimes earn decent money for evaluating the veracity and clarity of written communications.

However, the bulk of AI training jobs treat you like a broken bot — paying anywhere from a few pennies to nothing at all.

Here’s the breakdown of four popular sites that enlist freelancers to train AI models.

Data Annotation

If you want to sign up to train AI models through Data Annotation, you will need to fill out a screening questionnaire that’s likely to require about an hour of your time. But first, you’ll need to self-select your area of expertise, which determines your average hourly pay and the availability of work.  People with experience in math, biology, physics, chemistry and programming earn about $40 an hour. Those with language and general skills, earn $20 to $25 per hour.

The site will notify you, after you’ve completed the questionnaire, whether it needs your expertise. If it does, you’ll get access to open projects. These could involve answering technical questions, labeling photographs, choosing the best answer to a question or some other task. Each task says what you’re doing, what it pays and roughly how much time is involved.

At least in theory, the more projects you successfully complete, the more projects you get access to. However, the main complaint we see about this site is that the work is inconsistent. You could be clicking along and earning great money in one month and the next, there’s nothing. So, even if you get plenty of work at first, you can’t rely on the income continuing.

Outlier AI

Outlier enlists freelance experts all around the world, promising pay from $15 to $50 per hour. Like the gigs offered through Data Annotation, you’re often evaluating answers for clarity and proper use of colloquialisms, answering technical questions and labeling things.

And like Data Annotation, you’ll need to fill out an extensive screening questionnaire to get started. However, even after you qualify to take jobs through this platform, you’ll need to qualify for each individual gig. That qualification process involves reading through the project guidelines and completing “assessment tasks.” This process takes one to two hours, according to Outlier.

Since the tasks themselves may take only an hour or two, several reviewers complained that they spent more “qualifying” for projects than actually getting paid for them. As a result, you should view the pay promises with some skepticism. SideHusl.com estimates you’ll earn between $5 and $25 per hour, when you account for the time you spend completing the unpaid assessments.

Appen

Appen offers “microtasks” that may involve labeling items in photographs or identifying problems with corporate “chatbots” that are supposed to answer consumer questions. You could also be enlisted to complete video surveys or identify “fake news” on social media sites.

But Appen works worldwide and work in any given portion of the world is not guaranteed — nor is it highly paid. Appen says it pays minimum wage or better everywhere it operates. But it doesn’t appear to offer much in the way of work if you live somewhere that demands higher pay. The independent job search site Indeed estimates that Appen agents earn about $10 an hour in the U.S.. Some freelancers say they earn as little as $3 an hour.

Mechanical Turk

Mechanical Turk was one of the first AI training platforms. But, as far as making money is concerned, it is one of the worst.

You sign up with your Amazon account to see “HITS” — human intelligence tasks — offered by Mechanical Turk’s clients. These tasks can involve almost anything from doing detailed research to reviewing photos. The site’s clients, not Mechanical Turk, set the rate of pay and it’s usually paltry. A study of 3.8 million tasks found that the median wage on Mechanical Turk worked out to $2 an hour.

Worse, Mechanical Turk doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get paid even that. The site says: “We are not involved in the request or the performance of Tasks, and have no control over the quality, safety, or legality of Tasks or consideration (i.e. pay) for Tasks … or the ability of Requesters to pay for Tasks.”

In other words, if you don’t get paid at all, at least they warned you.

Kristof is the editor of SideHusl.com, an independent website that reviews moneymaking opportunities in the gig economy.