Freelancers are getting buried with ‘soulless’ AI slop cleanup: ‘It’s a shame we need to do it’
As more companies turn to AI, they’re hiring freelancers to cleanup its mistakes rather than create original work Lisa, a freelance graphic designer based in Spain, noticed a shift in her work after the release of ChatGPT in 2022. She went from receiving slow one-off jobs creating logos and packaging to an onslaught of requests asking her to fix versions that were generated by artificial…
As companies increasingly employ artificial intelligence, freelancers like Lisa, a graphic designer from Spain, find themselves drowning in a sea of "soulless" AI-generated content that requires correction. Lisa's work transitioned from creating logos and packaging to fixing AI-created designs, a shift that began after the release of ChatGPT in 2022. In 2025, 90% of Lisa's logo and packaging design requests involved cleaning up AI-generated content, which made up 60% to 70% of her annual income.
The workload was overwhelming and draining for Lisa. Clients often offered meager compensation, and some AI-generated designs were so poor that she had to start from scratch. Concerns about participation in AI-driven copyright infringement added to her stress. Frustrated by the low-quality work and inadequate payment, Lisa decided to decline such jobs by the end of 2025, highlighting the growing pains of freelancers caught in the AI revolution.
Written by urgent.news from Guardian Technology's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
