Are you an award-winning author of fiction or a screenwriter who’s done work for a major movie studio? Elon Musk wants to hire you to train his stupid Nazi robot.
Social media users spotted a job listing at Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI this week that looks to hire writers for $40/hour to $125/hour in at least a dozen different categories, including medical writing, legal writing, and journalism.
The AI company wants writers to “evaluate, refine, and create elite-level writing in a variety of genres and formats to advance Grok’s capabilities.” Grok, of course, is the AI chatbot that has seen more than a few controversies over the past year, including that time when it started spouting white supremacist conspiracy theories about South Africa and that time it praised Hitler while advocating for a new Holocaust.
Most recently, Grok has gained attention for creating deepfake porn, which has led to outright bans in a handful of countries like Indonesia and the Philippines. Users had been deploying Grok to strip women and girls of their clothes in non-consensual and abusive ways.
The job posting at xAI is most interesting perhaps because the requirements for the job are quite high. For example, here are the requirements for fiction writers hired to train Grok:
For prose fiction writers—At least two of the following: (1) verified novel publishing deals with major houses (e.g., Big Five); (2) novel sales >50,000 units (excluding free promotions); (3) 10+ short stories in major outlets (e.g., The New Yorker, Clarkesworld); (4) major awards recognition (e.g., Hugo, Nebula finalist or comparable); (5) critical acclaim (e.g., starred reviews in Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, features in Library Journal or NY Times Book Review)
Getting 10 or more sorties published in outlets like the New Yorker would be an impressive feat and there simply aren’t that many people in the world who’ve done that. The same goes for publishing a novel with the largest publishers. Or winning a Hugo Award.
The explanation for the requirements for screenwriters has an identical vibe:
For screenwriters—One or more of the following: (1) verified “written by” or “screenplay by” credits on at least two produced feature films distributed by major studios, networks, or streaming platforms (e.g., Warner Bros., Netflix, HBO, Disney); (2) “written by” (or equivalent) credits on 10 produced half-hour or one-hour episodes aired on broadcast TV or cable networks, or having achieved an aggregate of 10 million views on streaming services like YouTube; (3) nominations, wins, or finalist placement for major screenwriting awards (e.g., Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, WGA Awards, Nicholl Fellowship).
The job listing goes on and on like that with each category. Want to help train Grok in the journalism category? You’ll need to have extensive experience writing for the most prestigious outlets like the New York Times or the BBC. Want to help in the area of game writing? You’ll need at least five years experience and published credits on “notable games.”
On some level, it makes sense that xAI would be looking for the most experience people. But it’s also pretty insulting when you step back to consider the proposition. These are hypothetically some of the most talented writers in their fields. And they’re being asked to train the tool that’s supposed to replace them for as little as $40 per hour.
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