The smartest people in the world are automating themselves into obsolescence—and loving it
It was about 1:30 on a September morning when Lazaros-Antonios Chatzilazarou received a LinkedIn message. He was up late playing video games, an indulgence that he allows himself as he works toward a PhD in game theory while juggling a job at the Big Four accounting firm EY and a teaching post at the London School of Economics. Hitting pause on the game, Chatzilazarou opened LinkedIn and read the…
Lazaros-Antonios Chatzilazarou, a game theory PhD candidate, accounting professional, and LSE lecturer, discovered an opportunity in AI training through a LinkedIn message. He answered the recruiter's request to join Mercor, an AI training company, and began working with major labs to develop game theory prompts for AI systems and grade their responses.
Chatzilazarou is among a growing group of white-collar workers who have transitioned into AI training roles, fearing that their expertise may become obsolete as AI becomes more capable. These professionals hail from various fields, including doctors, lawyers, bankers, and research mathematicians, and they are compensated well for their services.
Companies like Mercor, Scale AI, Turing, and Ethos are experiencing surging demand for human expertise to train AI models. This trend poses a significant risk to the professionals' jobs, as AI systems become more proficient in their respective domains.
Written by urgent.news from Fast Company's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
