Achi news desk-
SAnd what you like about the Germans, you can always count on them to find the right word for anything. Take “The World’s Pain”, for example, which roughly translates to “world pain”. It is a sign of despair about the world’s suffering – and a deep sadness that comes from knowing that a better world is possible. Is there a more apt summation of the current moment?
For the past six months I, like many others, have been suffering from an acute case of weltschmerz. As someone of Palestinian descent I have been haunted by survivor’s guilt as I watch the genocide unfold in Gaza. For a while, I didn’t have the emotional energy to write. The only way I could get out of bed and get things done throughout the day was by completely avoiding the news. Which… is not an ideal scenario when you pretty much write the news for a living. So, at one point, I decided on a career pivot and applied for various non-writing jobs, including one at a dog food manufacturer. Reader, I was rejected. In fact, I didn’t even make it to the first round of interviews; I was amazed by a dog’s lunch.
Obviously, I’m writing again now. But for practical purposes I keep an eye on what else is out there. The media industry, after all, seems to be in free fall; it’s always good to try and secure a parachute, just in case. And the other day, one seemed to present itself to me in my LinkedIn messages. According to an automated messenger from an AI company, I have the perfect set of skills to help them write the first draft of AI history. I could, enthused the generic message, have “up to $15 [£12] hour”, to train an artificial intelligence model “by assessing the quality of writing produced by AI … and formulating original responses to stimuli”.
In other words: I could get paid less than New York minimum wage to train an AI model to take over my job. Is there a German word to describe that particular situation, I wonder? I will have to ask ChatGPT.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
Ad blocking test (Why?)
Source link
The post The media industry is dying – but I can still get paid to train AI to replace me – The Guardian appeared first on Canada News Media.
