How many humans does it take to make tech seem human? The rise of the AI annotator
fortnow · x · 2026-10-05
Computer scientist Bill Gasarch examines AI's impact on jobs, focusing on one job AI has created or expanded: the data annotator, who labels items in images to produce training data. Quoting the annotation manual's line about labeling "real items wearable by real people," he highlights edge cases (does Lady Gaga count as a real person?) and notes these jobs are generally low-paid and boring. The post frames bigger questions: who wins and loses, whether long-term society benefits as with past tech shifts, and whether the new jobs will be interesting.
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