'I feel like I dug my own grave': The workers caught in the AI transition
For 15 years, single mother Lisa made a living from content writing. She began writing straight out of college, freelanced for years and eventually followed
For 15 years, single mother Lisa made a living from content writing. She began writing straight out of college, freelanced for years and eventually followed a path taken by many young Filipinos: joining a multinational in the country's booming outsourcing industry. Lisa says she never felt the need to use artificial intelligence (AI) in her work. "I can say that I am able to do my job, I meet deadlines.
In my opinion, there is no need for [AI]," she told the BBC. Eight months into her latest role, and one month before the position was due to become permanent, she was made redundant. In the months before, Lisa says a public relations agency had been tasked with producing AI-generated material that she and her colleagues were asked to edit. She says her skills were used to train the AI on the company writing style.
"I feel like I dug my own grave," she says. "We were the ones who trained the artificial intelligence that replaced us." Lisa, not her real name, is one of several former outsourcing employees the BBC spoke to who asked to remain anonymous. They signed confidentiality agreements in return for severance pay, and fear that speaking publicly could hurt their chances of finding work in an industry which has a small network.
Their experiences offer an insight into a question confronting emerging economies like the Philippines: what happens when AI begins to automate the jobs that helped lift millions of people into the middle classes?
The BriefWire