AI Developers Hire Screenwriters, Doctors and Hobbyists to Train Chatbots

Artificial intelligence developers are hiring people with diverse skills, from Hollywood screenwriters to hiking enthusiasts, to train their chatbots, according to job postings.

"They are some of the fastest-growing jobs out there," said Christine Cruzvergara, vice president of higher education and student success at Handshake, a hiring platform that connects people with varied backgrounds to AI labs. "As large language models have consumed much of the available data, we are now at a stage where they need more fine-tuning and reinforcement."

Brendan Foody, CEO of Mercor, which helps AI companies recruit trainers for their apps, told CBS News that "training agents is going to become the largest job category in the world."

Hollywood screenwriter and author Robin Palmer spends 30 hours a week teaching chatbots to produce compelling creative writing. She compared the current creative abilities of large language models to those of fledgling writers.

"They're turning in work and you're looking at, 'Does this work structurally, how is the characterization, are there clunky transitions?'" she said. "I really like seeing how AI is improving. It's almost like working with a student and saying, 'Yeah, you're getting better.'"

Foody said AI labs seek people with deep domain expertise. "We hire everyone ranging from chess champions to wine hobbyists to help train AI agents to be better, because ultimately we want them to know how to give better advice in a chess match or recommend what wine you should have with dinner," he said.

Job postings do not name the hiring AI developers, and workers sign non-disclosure agreements. AI companies seek creative writers, air traffic controllers, litigators, improv actors, communications professionals, photo editors, musicians, venture capitalists, doctors and foreign-language speakers.

Mercor said its AI training jobs pay an average of $105 an hour, with some earning more. One listing offers up to $350 an hour for psychiatry experts to "design clinical scenarios, evaluate model outputs against evidence-based standards and help shape how the next generation of AI reasons about mental health care."

AI companies also hire "generalists" at $50 an hour to review and annotate search output for errors. The job requires a "quality-obsessed mindset" and strong written communication and reasoning skills.

Some skeptics argue that training large language models could help AI replace workers. Film industry professionals, including actors, animators, editors and location scouts, raised such concerns during the 2023 Hollywood strikes.

Palmer acknowledged that some in her field might see her AI work as "crossing the picket line." She said qualified people should train AI to make it serve users better. "The train has left the station," she said. "So do you want AI to be good because it's being trained by good people, or not?"

Dr. Mike Prokop, an anesthesiologist in Sacramento, California, said large language models need expert input. "The key thing AI can't do well yet is the deeper reasoning and connecting the dots, so we are teaching the AI to think like a human expert so it doesn't make hallucinations and represent facts that aren't facts," he told CBS News.

Prokop does not fear AI will make his field obsolete. "Anytime there is a tech revolution, there is going to be some shakeup in jobs," he said. "But it still takes a person to put a breathing tube in or do an epidural."

Brett Brosseit, a lawyer and teacher in Naples, Florida, who consults for Handshake AI, said working with AI helps people adapt to changes in their occupations. "I think the more that I can learn about AI and how it learns by working in this particular role, I'll be far better equipped as every industry evolves," he said. "The more we immerse ourselves in it, learn to live with it and learn how to get the most out of it, that's positive."