The workers at the frontlines of the AI revolution

The article talks about the AI boom has affected the work of gig-economy workers from third-world countries and explores the new challenges they face. It features interviews with copywriters, illustrators, designers, and others, providing insight into their experiences.

Some quotes from the article:

In search of lower wages, less oversight, and faster turnaround times, businesses in Western nations have long turned to workers in countries with cheaper labor. Freelancers on online gig work platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, and 99designs may not fit the conventional mold of outsourcing, but they largely map onto the same flows of work: clients in the Global North hiring workers in the Global South.

With the threat of less contract work to go around, many on online gig work platforms are trying to ride the wave of interest in generative AI by offering related services — and undercutting other contractors.

Santiago Bautista González worked full time selling his cartoon-style illustrations, using the freelance gig marketplace Fiverr. His income, around $1,500 in a good month, dropped by a third this past January. February was equally disappointing. [...] He found that Fiverr had added a section for AI artists. [...] Bautista decided to follow his customers, picking Midjourney as his tool of choice. He began offering AI commissions on Fiverr at the same base price as his usual hand-drawn illustrations. [...] He figured he would draw less, give his hands a rest, and compensate his lost income with AI illustrations. But something curious happened. The AI service gave him so much exposure, said Bautista, that his hand-drawn orders also increased in popularity. “Because of artificial intelligence, I started getting just too much work.”

But while some early adopters are able to take on more work thanks to AI assistance, there may be less to go around for others. “There’s a lot of competition that happens. Workers undercut one another from developing countries because it’s the only way you can get any access to work,” Rani, the ILO economist, said. She explained that even before AI tools were available, workers on these platforms would take on free assignments or accept pay cuts to stay ahead of other contractors.

There is particular pressure on outsourced workers to offer cheaper rates and shorter deadlines, she said, as they are often employed commission to commission, with little financial security or legal recourse when wages go unpaid.

The impact of generative AI on outsourced workers is likely to similarly be more nuanced than a sudden mass displacement.

For now at least, many labor researchers resist the idea that these tools bring “full automation” — often defined as the use of machines to complete tasks without human intervention. Rather, the current state of generative AI, by and large, falls under what experts call augmentation. Generative AI’s first wave of adopters are mostly working alongside these technologies — treating them as tools, not substitutes.

“A lot of clients have trouble explaining to us, humans, what they want and we help them to explain themselves,” he said [Rafael Rodríguez Deustúa a Mexican illustrator]. One client recently admitted they hired Deustúa after trying and failing to use an AI image generator to create a workable design themselves. Ultimately, the client decided they still wanted a professional’s human touch.

Deustúa wasn’t always an illustrator. For over two decades, he worked as a journalist in Mexico — first as an arts and culture reporter, then editing tech and science stories. Following the rise of digital news sites and social media in the 2010s, he found there were fewer jobs in print media and bet on freelance illustration as a new career. Now, seeing generative AI enter the market for illustrators is a “bitter experience.”

“I was already displaced once because of technology,” he said.