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Rest of World ·Future-gazing

I Refused to Train the AI That Could Replace Me

by James Maisiri

Published 2026-09-03 10:00:00+00:00

What happens when a machine learns not just what you know, but how you decide?

0:00 / 5:43 · Narrator Algieba

Context

In an essay published on 3 September 2026, a South African academic receives an unusual job offer. Tech companies are no longer just paying people to label basic data. They are hiring highly educated professionals to show machines how to make judgment calls. That shift forces a deeply uncomfortable question. When an algorithm offers you a life-changing wage to map out the exact skills that make your career valuable, do you take the money?

Show notes

A first-person account from a South African academic recruited to train an artificial intelligence system to grade essays and teach college students. The author connects this experience to a broader trend of paying manual laborers and educated professionals in developing nations to transfer their human judgment to machines. The essay outlines the economic incentives driving this new form of outsourcing and how it could automate white-collar professions.

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