AI’s Dirty Little Secret: The “Automated” Economy Still Runs on People

Despite promises of AI automation replacing human workers, a growing shadow workforce of skilled professionals—including laid-off writers, marketers, and lawyers—are now working as contractors to train the very AI systems that eliminated their jobs. Companies like Mercor employ around 30,000 professionals weekly to provide prompts and evaluations that teach machines professional skills, creating "ghost work" where human labor remains hidden behind supposedly automated systems. This represents a commoditization of professional knowledge rather than true automation, raising questions about who benefits when human expertise becomes training data for AI companies.