113 points by bookofjoe 5 hours ago | 9 comments
CodesInChaos 3 hours ago
> In a snake-eating-its-own-tail irony, a 2023 analysis found that between 33% and 46% of workers on the platform were using large language models to complete their tasks,

I assume AI use by workers has risen to the point where it renders Mechanical Turk pointless.

skt5 1 hour ago
This likely means those consuming the outputs of Mechanical Turk don't have a good way to measure the value (aka quality) of the outputs.

If they did - then they shouldn't care whether it's a human or a LLM. And if it's a LLM - then the cost will roughly correlate to the MIN(cost of the LLM, cost of a human) to do the task.

AndrewOMartin 56 minutes ago
I think the "state of the art" of measuring the quality of outputs was to send the same task to multiple "agents" and only accept answers if over a certain amount agree. With some human review and reputation scoring sprinkled on top. It was a while since I was in this field though
moralestapia 3 hours ago
Yeah, I was doing this kind of Artificial Artificial Artificial Intelligence back in 2012 to make some extra $$$. Glad they finally "patched" that hole ^^.
pc86 2 hours ago
You were using LLMs in 2012?
subarctic 1 hour ago
Artificial AI = stuff like mechanical turk where they get humans to do stuff computers can't do and make it look like it's "AI"

Artificial Artificial Intelligence = using computers to do mechanical turk jobs

moralestapia 1 hour ago
You wrote the same thing twice, hehe.

But the point gets across.

icepush 23 minutes ago
Artificial Artificial Artificial intelligence is when the chat bot is out of capacity, so a person in India is writing the response that gets returned by the LLM which gets pasted into Mechanical Turk.
simlevesque 2 hours ago
They were faking artificial intelligence by using real individuals.
pixel_popping 2 hours ago
Fiverr-5.5 was the leading model back then.
moralestapia 2 hours ago
Not LLMs. (Useful) LLMs came to the market around 2022.
6510 33 minutes ago
I don't see why I would care how they do the job. Just do the job, I have other things to do.
jordemort 24 minutes ago
I turked for a bit trying to make some extra cash leading up to my wedding, but it was a very time-inefficient way to make money. I think I managed to wring 10 or 20 bucks out of it tops after plugging at it for a month.
nullsmack 4 hours ago
I had no idea this was still around.

It helped me buy a Battlefield 2 "Special Forces" expansion pack back in the day.

Well, I could've bought it either way but buying it didn't impact my normal income because I did Mechanical Turk in my free time enough to get it.

root-parent 2 hours ago
I can see a high value startup, that will provide Human Intelligence with real Humans, locked in the room, with no network, books, LLMs and monitored 24x7 with cameras.
HoldOnAMinute 1 hour ago
Please enjoy each task equally
mcmcmc 1 hour ago
24/7 isolation with no stimulation outside of work? Wonder if the hallucination rate would be higher or lower
morkalork 22 minutes ago
Just give them some exercise bikes to pedal to keep them physically occupied
obblekk 2 hours ago
Maybe the most unambiguous "ai will automate work" example I've seen yet.

Absolutely does not imply the workers are automated since they can now use the current models to do more complex tasks at the vast number of new AI training data startups.

Turk was simply not designed for greater complexity tasks and so much of their lunch has been eaten by startups specifically built to collect AI training data.

leohonexus 2 hours ago
Where do I find participants for my user studies then?
sampton 23 minutes ago
Pour one out for the original A.I. (Actual Indians).
josefritzishere 4 hours ago
It's a shame. Mechanical Turk works better than any AI.
xandrius 4 hours ago
It's still AI, just a different type.
CodesInChaos 3 hours ago
The Actually Indian kind?
mghackerlady 3 hours ago
Hey, maybe they're Indonesian!
pwython 3 hours ago
I thought they were Turkish.
expedition32 1 hour ago
Ever been to Singapore? Their apartments have a room for a Indonesian maid.

Never underestimate just how cheap human life is!

testuser1984 49 minutes ago
American Idiot kind
cindyllm 48 minutes ago
[dead]
shshsjsj 1 hour ago
mild racism, needs to be reported
aswegs8 1 hour ago
It's a joke
Faaak 1 hour ago
you can call the police
HoldOnAMinute 1 hour ago
India is not a race, therefore this is not racist.
brokensegue 2 hours ago
personally, i've never had good luck with MT's quality.
baggachipz 3 hours ago
They moved all the Mechanical Turk workers over to robot and autotaxi piloting.
teddyh 2 hours ago
And monitoring of “cashier-free” grocery stores.