Job apocalypse? Humbug! Al is creating brand new occupations

A mock job advertisement that has done the rounds recently calls for a “killswitch engineer” for OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT.

- The Economist

The description requires the successful applicant to stand by servers all day and unplug them “if this thing turns on us”. Useful skills include the ability to “throw a bucket of water on the servers, too. Just in case.”

Despite widespread fears of job losses owing to the rise of artificial-intelligence (AI) agents, it is not all gallows humour. The technology is already creating demand for new roles—to train agents, embed them in organisations and ensure that they behave. Many of these jobs, moreover, require uniquely human skills.

Start with data annotators. No longer are they merely low-paid gig workers tediously tagging images. As AI has advanced, experts in subjects such as finance, law and medicine have increasingly been enlisted to help train models. Mercor, a startup that has built a platform to hire boffins to help build bots, was recently valued at $10bn. Brendan Foody, its chief executive, says they earn $90 an hour on average.