Chinese tech giants are hiring skilled professionals as specialized AI trainers to build high-quality datasets, mirroring efforts by US platforms like Mercor (Viola Zhou/Rest of World)
Squeezed by a stagnant economy and state directives, China's underemployed lawyers, architects, and engineers are taking cheap gig work …
Cuicui, a Shenzhen-based architect in her 40s, transitioned from her former profession after a decline in government infrastructure spending reduced her income by half. She now works as a specialized AI trainer at data annotation platforms such as TalentsAI, where she instructs AI models on tasks like writing building proposals or conducting profitability analyses.
In the U.S., companies like Mercor and Surge AI have recruited tens of thousands of professionals to train AI models on white-collar tasks. In China, the government has encouraged industry experts to participate in data annotation to improve the quality of training data for AI. Chinese AI labs are closing the gap with Silicon Valley in building models that excel in general reasoning and coding.
They are now focusing on specialized data collection for AI work tools in fields like medicine, law, and finance. Freelance AI trainers complete tasks that take a few hours each and earn 100 to 500 yuan ($15 to $74) per assignment. They are required to use their own work experiences and thought processes, without utilizing AI themselves.
As the youth unemployment rate in China approaches three-year highs, many professionals are taking on gig AI training jobs to diversify their income and adapt to an uncertain economy.
Written by urgent.news from Techmeme's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
