Hollywood writers now secretly train AI—the new waiting tables
A Wired essay from a screenwriter details the underbelly of AI training work: gig contracts that pay for data labeling, content annotation, and model feedback.
In eight months, the author completed 20 such contracts across five platforms. The work is repetitive, poorly paid, and often masked by non-disclosure agreements.
For displaced TV and film workers, it's become the default survival income—a precarity loop that mirrors the economic pressure that preceded the 2023 writers' strike.