r/technology • u/McFatty7 • 18h ago

Artificial Intelligence Doctors, Lawyers, and Engineers Are Joining AI’s $400-an-Hour Gig Economy

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-16/ai-training-jobs-are-attracting-doctors-lawyers-and-engineers
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u/mx3goose 15h ago

Myself and my team was let go about two years ago from a non profit because all our funding was delayed and tied up with the bead funding. Oh and the president called what we were doing racist, that's neat.

Hasn't been a whole lot of demand for helping people these last couple years I got quickest job I could,  mark utility lines for 22 bucks an hour. 

Last month an AI firm reached out and wanted to pay me 115 an hour with an extendable 1 year at a time contract for my hyper specific knowledge of all the USDA forms used for the food and lunch programs for schools. 

They hired me in at 165 and hour with performance bonuses up to almost 20k if I meet the metrics which I am flying by them honestly 

I will make more this year than I have almost the last decade combined of my life helping underserved family's get food assistance.

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u/GoingOffRoading 15h ago

Make sure you save that extra money... Because I've that knowledge transfer is over, your getting dumped

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u/Bojanggles16 14h ago

That's his entire point tho. He already got dumped and this is at least letting him cash in in the meantime.

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u/RickSt3r 14h ago

What happens when the USDA changes the forms. Complex human run organizations always be changing. It the human aspect creates the inefficiencies. Like do these forms even exist. The problem is how do you feed children healthy. It’s a simple canned answer but we create these complex systems that are more a jobs programs then actually solving the problem.

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u/axonxorz 14h ago

Then you pay a contractor to update your model training. In most cases, it takes less work than [last time], as changes and updates are typically iterative, not complete replacements.

Zucc waited forever to hop on the AI bandwagon, and the person he tapped to run Meta's initiative ran a company providing exactly that service.

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u/theotherwhiteafrican 13h ago

Yes but OP is literally already that contractor you're referring to. If everything you said will happen happens, thats great for OP. Even if they pay less each time and require shorter terms, that's still a steady series of gigs in OPs future each offering dramatically more than OPs former career. And companies like reusing past contractors. Known quantities and all that.

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u/modernknightly 12h ago

And as the dynamism in pricing and wages gets further and further away from baseline, what happens to everyone else who don't have specialized skills?

Feels like old school simcity. You think about tax and zoning decisions that will affect the game in terms of in game years sheen the road.

What we're talking about is a version of this long term pattern to me. If we keep seeing companies abs industries going through waves of reducing human labor to pay the remaining labor less and less due to iteration based changes, we're going to end up with humans being wholly unnecessary to the new economic paradigm of automated consolidation and efficiency driving.

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u/RickSt3r 14h ago

So back to human labor. Also model training is super data intensive. You are better off writing a deterministic software than having an LLM with probabilistic output behind it.

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u/RollingMeteors 9h ago

Then you pay a contractor to update your model training.

Then you call your POC at USDA and tell them you got your work in and they should update the forms on their end next Monday.

Wash, rinse, repeat profit.

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u/Kairukun90 10h ago

Then when data centers get Ukraine’d and all that data is lost. What then?

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u/axonxorz 9h ago

If you aren't replicated across availability zones in at least your backup regime, no tears will be shed for you.

Yandex DCs causing outages is because Yandex DCs don't exist outside of Russia, there is limited geo-redundancies and I think the bot farms are more concerned about botting than having good SREs and "cross-AZ" replication.

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u/medievalPanera 11h ago

It's no different than a firm outsourcing their people. Gotta love capitalism. 

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u/delicious_pubes 14h ago

It’s a sad situation but if they don’t train their replacements then someone else will and they would have made less money when they could have. I’m in similar shoes with front row seats to the end of my career but I’m not about to be a martyr when I have a family to support.

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u/Shivin302 13h ago

How did you negotiate from 115 to 165?

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u/mx3goose 13h ago

115 was the floor from HR for general recruitment of interests I assume. 20+_years of experience in exactly what they wanted I assume is why they offered me more.

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u/FeatureSeparate404 8h ago

For humanity, train AI wrong. Just eff their shiz up. Lol

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u/Argyleskin 8h ago

Is it a work from home type situation? And how long was the hiring process from resume on to offer if you don’t mind me asking? My spouse and I are specialized in two different industries.

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u/mx3goose 8h ago

It was very quick but at the same time I was headhunted and didn't even know it. I had no idea how specialized my knowledge was

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u/Argyleskin 7h ago

You’re super lucky! Hoping that’s the case for at least my husband. He’s specialized in a few areas of tech.

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u/LeZygo 3h ago

Smart to leverage that knowledge while you can still make money on it. Glad you got paid.

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u/wickzer 2h ago

Same story here. Different sector.