Kenyans Made a Living Writing Essays for US Students. Then AI Killed the Business.
paulnovosad · x · 2026-09-06
A New York Times report details how thousands of Kenyans who made a living writing college essays for overseas students have seen the work dry up as AI took over.
- Case study: Teresios Bundi, 34, moved to Nairobi in 2011, wrote his first essay for $7 over three hours, and went on to write over 2,500 essays across 12 years while earning his public health degree.
- Warning for gig work: The piece frames this as a caution for online gig economies — the internet creates opportunities out of thin air and destroys them overnight, with 10x impact in regions that struggle to create their own.
- The debate: Quote-tweeter paulnovasad asks: if college assignments build high-value human capital, the Kenyans who spent years doing them should be the most employable people on the planet — implying the destroyed work may have been lower-value than assumed.
Related event: AI Wipes Out Kenya's Essay-Mill Gig Industry(2 posts)→
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