Issue #28. Huge drop in writing jobs

Hey, everyone. I’m still playing catch-up, but I heard a stat so alarming I had to pass it along.

On today’s quest:

— 33% fewer listings for writing jobs
— News catch-up

Fewer job postings for writers

What jobs are being hit hardest by AI? Well, if you look at listings on the freelance job board Upwork, the answer is writing jobs. This is only one analysis of one freelance site, but Bloomberry reports that although overall listings at Upwork have risen since ChatGPT was released, 3 of the top 12 categories have seen a drop: customer service (down 16%), translation (down 19%), and writing (down 33%).

I imagine most writing gigs on Upwork are for low-level business writing, which is exactly the kind of writing chatbots are good at, so maybe higher-level writing jobs will fare better, but it’s still not great news for writers.

News Catch-Up

Tyler Perry mothballs studio project after seeing Sora

Hollywood big-shot Tyler Perry got cold feet after seeing OpenAI’s new video generation model, Sora, and stopped development of 12 sound stages in Atlanta that would have cost $800 million.

If I had to bet, I’d say it will be a long time before AI can give directors the level of control and consistency they’d want for a full-length movie, but I am also not betting $800 million.

I can, however, see something like Sora quickly replacing stock B-roll services.

Perry said he can imagine a world where there’s no need to film on location or to build sets, "I can sit in an office and do this with a computer.” And he’s worried about the industry: “I immediately started thinking of everyone in the industry who would be affected by this, including actors and grip and electric and transportation and sound and editors . . . this will touch every corner of our industry."

ChatGPT goes way off the rails

For one wild night last week, ChatGPT spoke utter nonsense. OpenAI later said it was a bug introduced in an update, and they fixed it. But a few days ago, people were getting responses like recipes that included a “sunken space of salt” and “1/3 cup of residency artist.” (Is that diced or julienned?)

It would have been funnier if it didn’t happen the same week the Pentagon said it was exploring military uses of AI. I don’t think anyone would call me an AI doomer, but I would still never use AI for any application where accuracy and consistency mattered.

Blazing fast AI

You have to try it to believe it. A new chatbot called Groq (which I expect to get a trademark cease-and-desist letter from Elon Musk’s entirely different chatbot called Grok) generates answers in an instant. It’s not as accurate as some other chatbots, but the speed has other benefits. For example, it could make human-AI conversations feel more real — no more waiting for answers. I bet it could even interrupt you.

More AI job screening

In the last newsletter, I told you about my friend’s job-searching daughter who had to do video recordings that were screened by AI, which determined whether she would be interview by a human. Now, the BBC is reporting on the ways these tools are (completely unsurprisingly) exacerbating bias into the hiring process:

“An AI resume screener had been trained on CVs of employees already at the firm, giving people extra marks if they listed ‘baseball’ or ‘basketball’ – hobbies that were linked to more successful staff, often men. Those who mentioned ‘softball’ – typically women – were downgraded.” *

These tools are widespread with 42% of companies reporting using them and another 40% reporting they are considering using them.

AI is as bad at math as I am

I remember being surprised a few weeks ago when I heard the well-regarded Khan Academy launched an AI tutor because the Khan Academy is best known for math tutoring, and AI is famously bad at math.

Well, it looks like it turned out as expected because now the Wall Street Journal is reporting (gift link) that the tool, called Khanmigo, is making basic math errors, in one example responding “Excellent!” to a wrong answer. The argument for its use is that it’s right most of the time, and it’s better than no tutor at all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Making better hands

AI is also famously bad at making human hands, but researchers are working on it. I know it’s important work, but for some reason I found it hilarious that there is a whole research paper on making AI hands.

Maybe it’s just everything that is going on in my life, but I found myself frustrated with the news this week. I mean, <insert many swear words>, do better people! Don’t use AI for hiring, math tutoring, and deciding who gets bombed. It doesn’t take a room full of sci-fi writers to predict what will go wrong.

What is AI sidequest?

Using AI isn’t my main job, and it probably isn’t yours either. I’m Mignon Fogarty, and Grammar Girl is my main gig, but I haven’t seen a technology this transformative since the development of the internet, and I want to learn about it. I bet you do too.

So here we are! Sidequesting together.

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^{*  For some reason, this anecdote made me especially furious, but my husband made me laugh by saying I am becoming radicalized “one ball sport at a time.”}

^{Written by a human.}