From The CapTable AI trainers are overqualified. But their alternatives are worse Last August, Priyanka (name changed) was scrolling through LinkedIn looking for content writing jobs when she spotted what seemed like a perfect match. She applied, got called for an interview, and was offered a position. But when she started work, M Phil degree in hand, she discovered the job was nothing like what she had signed up for. Instead of writing content, which she expected to at least satisfy her creative side, she spent her days feeding prompts to Meta’s Llama. No creative writing, no storytelling, just interactions with a machine all day long. “I was shocked to find out that this is what I had to do. I have an M Phil degree and doing this is not what I had ever imagined,” she said. She knew this wasn’t a job she would stick with for long, but she needed the income. So she stayed for nearly a year, doing work that felt far beneath her qualifications. To be sure, tech companies focusing on AI models often require subject expertise and seek candidates with highly advanced degrees. However, the professionals filling up these roles perceive them as repetitive and menial, though the compensation is attractive. Many like Priyanka are part of this growing army of overqualified Indians now working as AI trainers, AI raters, and data annotators. Thousands of professionals with Master’s degrees, M Phils, and PhDs are being hired to train artificial intelligence systems on how to respond to queries about health, economics, medicine, and countless other domains. They research information, provide responses, and pass these on to others who verify accuracy. Others label raw data that trains AI systems, much like content moderators once did for social media. While the job may be boring, it still helps pay the bills. In a country with a high unemployment rate where millions apply for a peon’s job, many see it as a useful stop-gap—a temporary detour—before getting back on track to the desired career path. Continue Reading
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