AI Companies Pay Experts Up to $350/Hour to Improve Model Reasoning and Reduce Hallucinations

Leading makers of generative AI tools are hiring people with a wide range of skills and expertise, from Hollywood screenwriters to hiking enthusiasts, to train their bots to be smarter, according to job postings reported by CBS News. Artificial intelligence developers want to know what you know.

"They are some of the fastest-growing jobs out there," Christine Cruzvergara, vice president of higher education and student success at Handshake, told CBS News.

"As large language models have consumed much of the available data out there, we are now at a stage where they need more fine-tuning and reinforcement," she added. " Mercor said AI labs are particularly eager to enlist people with deep expertise in their domains ranging from chess champions to wine hobbyists.

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

Hollywood screenwriter and author Robin Palmer is among those lending her skills to training AI. She spends 30 hours per week teaching chatbots how to produce compelling creative writing. Palmer compared the current ability of large language models, or LLMs, to write creatively to that of fledgling writers.

'" she said. "I really like seeing how AI is improving. '" Job postings for AI training typically do not disclose which AI developers are hiring. Workers who take the job must sign non-disclosure agreements.

Mercor said the AI training jobs it recruits for pay an average of $105 an hour, although some people can earn considerably more. A person with expertise in psychiatry can earn up to $350 an hour for AI training work designing clinical scenarios and evaluating model outputs. Mercor-defined generalist AI training jobs reviewing and annotating AI search output pay $50 an hour.

Dr. Mike Prokop, a Sacramento, California-based anesthesiologist, also works in the field. "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 said he does not worry that training AI will render people in his field obsolete. "Anytime there is a tech revolution, there is going to be some shakeup in jobs," he said. " Brett Brosseit, a Naples, Florida-based lawyer and teacher who now works as a consultant for Handshake AI, thinks working closely with AI can help people adapt.

"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. Film industry professionals expressed concern about AI during the 2023 Hollywood strikes. " But she sees value in qualified people instructing AI so the technology can serve people more effectively.

"The train has left the station," Palmer said.