Companies Need to Stop Hiring Writers to Just Use AI
No, seriously. I can’t believe this needs to be said.
I found a post in a writers’ group on Facebook. “Any freelance writers available? I need to hire a blog writer” — that ilk. Simple enough. I DM’ed the poster, had a little conversation, and sent him my portfolio website.
Not terribly long after, I got in contact with his higher-up. He wanted to speak with me through Skype messenger.
The higher-up’s profile pic looked kind of smarmy, like he’s smirking at you. But I’m not reading too deeply into it. I remember a multi-level marketing scheme trying to recruit me years ago in which the interviewer literally had oil-slicked-back hair. You know, like a cartoon. Smarmy boss on Skype isn’t entirely at that level.
The higher-up took a good couple of weeks to get back to me. It was a simple “Hi, how are you?” in response to my more detailed intro message. I responded back to him. Let’s keep this conversation going.
He then responded the next day. “Thank you for connecting,” he began. “I am behind on a deadline. Can you help me with a couple of blogs?”
It’s a substantially long message and told me everything I needed to know about this company: who their clients are, what their base rate is, article acceptance standards, etc. But it’s about an eighth of the way through the message before I’m completely turned off by this company: “We strongly prefer that you use Chat GPT to write the articles, and then modify using Quillbot or Wordtune.”
Okay, that explains the insultingly low pay of $0.01 per word that he offered.
Needless to say, I didn’t bother getting into the message’s multiple hyperlinks to company videos and article examples. I was in awe at just the sheer audacity of a company trying to hire a blog writer to create their articles entirely with AI. Why hire me? Why even ask? Sure, he used “strongly prefer” instead of “required,” but just mentioning it in the first place told me what this company actually expected from me. I declined the position and moved on.
Yet I can’t be silent about it. This offer wasn’t just a crappy job position. What I saw was, fundamentally, an example of a company having complete disregard to writing as an actual skill. Basic copy-editing is even expected to be AI-generated. With talk about AI replacing jobs at a faster rate, this encounter is one of my biggest AI fears in action.
This company seemed like a content mill — a place that expects people to simply churn out as much product as possible, regardless of quality. And no, don’t fall for any “we have standards” nonsense. Despite the smarmy ChatGPT boss telling me that the company was “seeking writers with experience” and will “not purchase [an] article if we do not like the article,” there is no quality assurance for a company asking for AI-generated work.
But let’s go a step further and see the deeper consequences of this. Had I accepted this position, I would be contributing to AI training that would eventually affect writers like me down the line much, much sooner. This job wouldn’t just be affecting me, or even my current generation.
I have to contend with reality, though. Even though I didn’t take that position, I’m sure someone did. This company reaching out to me for AI work isn’t being affected by what they’re doing, and they’re likely not the only company doing this. Regardless, it’s a dishonest practice with a litany of moral implications. These companies prey upon desperate writers to create content devoid of any soul or skill.
I know that AI is a new frontier right now, and there are many interesting things we can do with it. However, boundaries need to be established and respected. I’ve spoken about AI-generated artwork before when I saw a trend of hastily-generated thumbnails on Medium. AI art, in any practice, for whatever purpose, is stealing, copying, and curtailing around actual skilled work.
But it’s one thing to ask ChatGPT to spit something out for you. Blatantly hiring writers for their “expertise,” only to throw that expertise in the garbage and have them use the very tools replacing them in their profession is an entirely new low.
It’s not enough to say “no” to these companies and let things slide. We need to continue the conversation. If AI is going to be used responsibly in the future, we need to establish how to use it responsibly right now.
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