We’ve talked a lot about the impact generative AI technologies like ChatGPT may have on US workers. However, little time has been spent on how AI may impact the nature of outsourced labor.

An interesting report at Rest of World shares some light on how workers in cheap labor markets are employing AI. While US workers are fearing for their jobs, outsourced workers embracing generative technologies at a high rate.

Foreign Freelancers Face Off

Stateside small business owners turn to 99designs, UpWork and others searching for freelancers who could create logos and illustrations for a fraction of US-born illustrators. When Midjourney and DALL-E came on the scene, entrepreneurs could crank in a prompt and generate illustrations that were not only passable, but good.

Foreign freelancers can no longer compete on price anymore, but have to compete on speed, efficiency, and immediacy with the advent of generative tools.

The kicker is many freelancers are using generative AI while realizing it’s a competing technology. Freelancers are selling packs of generated services instead of charging by the hour.

Workers in Bangladesh are charging for 1,000 blog articles generated by ChatGPT with claims of being mistake and plagiarism free.

When I talk to most large employers they say AI, “isn’t there yet,” compared to human service workers, but the technology is fast approaching human proficiency. Many employers plan to hire fewer workers thanks to automation.

Optimistic technologists think AI is just like every other technology. We’ll invent new problems the tech can’t solve. This time, it’s hard not to think we’re building replacements for ourselves.

-MJ