The fired scientists and lawyers are training AI to steal their careers

This article is a collaboration between new York Magazine and The Verge.

The LinkedIn post appeared to be another fraudulent job offer, but Katya was desperate enough to click on it. After college, she struggled to make a living as a freelance journalist, attended graduate school, and then transitioned to what she hoped would be a more stable career in content marketing—only to find that AI had automated much of the work. This company was called Crossing Hurdles and promised writing jobs starting at $45 an hour.

Katya clicked and was taken to a page from another company called Mercor, where she was instructed to do an on-camera interview with an AI named Melvin. “It just seemed like the sketchiest thing in the world,” Katya says. She closed the bill. But a few weeks…