Workers are getting paid to teach AI how to do their jobs

Artificial intelligence developers want to know what you know.

Leading makers of generative AI tools are hiring people with a wide range of skills and expertise, from Hollywood screenwriters to hiking enthusiasts, to train their bots to be smarter, according to job postings.

"They are some of the fastest-growing jobs out there," said Christine Cruzvergara, vice president of higher education and student success at Handshake, a hiring platform that connects people with different backgrounds and skills to leading AI labs.

"As large language models have consumed much of the available data out there, we are now at a stage where they need more fine-tuning and reinforcement," she added.

Brendan Foody, CEO of Mercor, which helps AI companies recruit people to help train their apps, told CBS News that "training agents is going to become the largest job category in the world."

Hollywood screenwriter and author Robin Palmer is among those lending her skills to training AI. She spends 30 hours per week teaching chatbots how to produce compelling creative writing.

Palmer compared the current ability of large language models, or LLMs, to write creatively to that of fledgling writers.

"They're turning in work and you're looking at, 'Does this work structurally, how is the characterization, are there clunky transitions?'" she said. "I really like seeing how AI is improving. It's almost like working with a student and saying, 'Yeah, you're getting better.'"

Foody said AI labs are particularly eager to enlist people with deep expertise in their domains.

"We hire everyone ranging from chess champions to wine hobbyists to help train [AI] agents to be better, because ultimately we want them to know how to give better advice in a chess match or recommend what wine you should have with dinner," he said.

Job postings typically don't disclose which AI developers are hiring, and workers who take the job must sign non-disclosure agreements. AI companies are looking for a variety of people to help improve their models. They include:

• Creative writers
• Air traffic controllers
• Litigators
• Improv actors
• Communications pros
• Photo editors
• Musicians
• Venture capitalists
• Doctors
• Foreign-language speakers

Mercor said the AI training jobs it recruits for pay an average of $105 an hour, although some people can earn considerably more. For instance, someone with expertise in psychiatry can earn up to $350 an hour to "design clinical scenarios, evaluate model outputs against evidence-based standards and help shape how the next generation of AI reasons about mental health care," according to one listing on Mercor.

AI companies are also seeking what Mercor defines as "generalists," to review and annotate AI search output and look for errors, among other duties. Requirements for the job, which pays $50 an hour, include a "quality-obsessed mindset" and strong written communication and reasoning skills

Skeptics might say that people who are getting paid to educate LLMs are effectively training AI to replace them or future generations of workers.

Film industry pros, for example, from actors and animators to editors and even location scouts, have expressed concern about AI one day putting them out of work — fears that were front and center in the mass strikes that shut down Hollywood productions in 2023.

Palmer, the screenwriter, acknowledges that some people in her business might liken her work with AI to "crossing the picket line." But she sees value in qualified people instructing AI so the technology can serve people more effectively, while also expressing a measure of resignation about the advent of AI in the workplace.

"The train has left the station," she said. "So do you want AI to be good because it's being trained by good people, or not?"

Dr. Mike Prokop, a Sacramento, California-based anesthesiologist, also said it's essential for LLMs to receive expert input.

"The key thing AI can't do well yet is the deeper reasoning and connecting the dots, so we are teaching the AI to think like a human expert so it doesn't make hallucinations and represent facts that aren't facts," he told CBS News.

Prokop said he doesn't worry that training AI will render people in his field obsolete. "Anytime there is a tech revolution, there is going to be some shakeup in jobs," he said. "But it still takes a person to put a breathing tube in or do an epidural."

Brett Brosseit, a Naples, Florida-based lawyer and teacher who now works as a consultant for Handshake AI, thinks working closely with AI can help people adapt to how the technology is changing their occupations, offering a measure of protection as the technology takes some jobs.

"I think the more that I can learn about AI and how it learns by working in this particular role, I'll be far better equipped as every industry evolves," he said. "The more we immerse ourselves in it, learn to live with it and learn how to get the most out of it, that's positive."