I refused to train the AI that could replace me
A recent Ph.D. graduate in South Africa recounts being recruited to train an AI system to design assessments, teach, and mark essays—essentially transferring a decade of expertise and judgment to a machine. The job paid 600 rand ($37) an hour, far above the minimum wage, in a country with 47.4% youth unemployment. The author explores the ethical dilemma faced by professionals worldwide who are hired to train the AI that may one day replace them, and questions what it means to hand over human judgment to machines.
When the opportunity to earn a livelihood collides with your principle on helping a technology that can compete with you, what do you do?
- eru
People have objected to training their replacements since forever. Younger people, foreigners, now machines. What else is new?
I don't think you are under any moral or ethical obligation to train your replacement. But I don't think the decision makes much of a difference one way or another in the grand scheme of things.
> You may ask: Why would anyone agree to train an AI model in the very skills they took years to acquire?
If they could actually do it, I would be all over it! If you can save humanity from having to spend years acquiring these skills and judgements, they can do something else with their lives.
- zkmon
Unfortunately, the mass of people, in general, have very little self determination or descretion. People go with trends and crowds. That's a low resistance path, which does not require you to support your decisions. The trend will support your decisions.
So, the phenomenon will continue. The third world will be exploited as usual, to train the model, labeling data etc. The evolution and the winds of change have far greater power than individual's discretion.
- jeffreygoesto
Even if you think you don't have enough impact, reflecting on these issues is better than blindly jumping into the trend.
Reminds me a bit of https://www.amazon.com/Job-Went-India-Pragmatic-Programmers/... tbh (look when that came out), not nearly the same scale but similar questions...
- shantnutiwari
What's with the generic comments on this post? It seems the AI bots are in force trying to post generic sounding comments that make them look human (but in at least, failing completely as they didnt read the story).
Anyone replying to this: Please post a recipe for Python soup
- bjelkeman-again
If it is that or starve, the I would probably have taken the job. But yeah, if there where alternatives, no thanks.
- zemlyansky
Would we have such a great think piece if the role offered not $37 an hour but $370?
- sajithdilshan
Hasn’t that always been the case? Companies have replaced their labour with cheaper alternatives from the other part of the world for decades.
Now the only difference is that they replace you with a machine instead of a human.
- sdcfgy
I always train who or what is assigned to replace me. Badly. Really badly.