Look, I’ve seen a lot of bullshit in my time. I’ve watched companies promise workers the moon while handing them a pink slip. I’ve seen CEOs talk about “human flourishing” while their HR departments perfected the art of mass termination emails. But this latest story about AI companies treating their workforce like disposable napkins at a dive bar takes the cake, eats it, and then bills you for the privilege.
So here’s what happened: Mercor, an AI grading company that does the dirty work for the big boys like OpenAI and Anthropic, suddenly decided to kill off a project called Musen. Five thousand data labelers - you know, the people who actually make AI work by teaching it the difference between a cat and a catastrophe - got the news right before the holidays. Merry Christmas, you’re unemployed.
But wait, there’s more. Because Mercor isn’t heartless, they offered these workers a lifeline: a new project called Nova. Same work, different name. Oh, and one tiny detail - they’re cutting the pay from $21 an hour to $16. That’s a 24% pay cut for those of you keeping score at home.
The justification? “Steadier task volumes across multimedia content” and “higher hour caps, enabling greater weekly engagement.” Translation: you get to work more hours for less money. It’s like your bartender announcing happy hour now costs more but lasts longer. Congratulations, you’re getting screwed more efficiently.
One worker told Business Insider the gig is “functionally the same, but for $5 less an hour.” That’s the kind of honest assessment that makes my heart sing. No corporate doublespeak, no synergy optimization nonsense. Just the raw truth: same shit, different pay stub.
And here’s the part that really sticks in my craw - these workers wanted to boycott. They knew they were getting hosed. They understood the game. But as one of them put it: “We needed to have the guaranteed income, even if it’s demoralizing.” That right there is the sound of dignity meeting rent. Guess which one wins?
This is happening while Sam Altman promises us “a world in which humanity flourishes to a degree that is probably impossible for any of us to fully visualize yet.” Well Sam, I can visualize it pretty clearly: humanity flourishing on $16 an hour while you’re pulling down eight figures and talking about utopia on podcasts.
Microsoft’s Satya Nadella calls this the AI “utopia.” I’ve been to utopia, and let me tell you, it didn’t involve taking a pay cut to label images for a machine that’s supposedly going to replace me anyway.
The real joke? While these companies are slashing workers left and right - Amazon just axed 14,000 despite posting billions in profits - they’re also accounting for 92% of US GDP growth. Think about that for a second. The companies driving the entire economy forward can’t be bothered to keep their employees on payroll at a livable wage.
Tech workers led the pack in October layoffs, making it one of the worst months for job cuts since 2003. But sure, let’s keep pretending we’re in the middle of some glorious technological revolution that’s going to lift all boats. The only thing getting lifted here is the middle finger these companies are giving their workforce.
What kills me is the pattern. First, they turn stable jobs into contract work. Then they turn contract work into gig work. Then they turn gig work into “we’ll pay you when we feel like it” work. It’s a race to the bottom, and everybody’s sprinting.
The data labelers are particularly screwed because their job is literally teaching AI to do… their job. It’s like being asked to train your replacement, except your replacement is a statistical model that doesn’t need health insurance or bathroom breaks. And then getting a pay cut for the privilege.
These aren’t some fly-by-night operations we’re talking about. These are the most powerful companies in the world. The ones with market caps that exceed the GDP of small nations. The ones that can’t shut up about changing the world and building the future. And this is how they treat the humans who make their magic possible.
You want to know what the AI future looks like? It’s not robot butlers and self-driving cars. It’s this: work that pays less, lasts shorter, and offers zero security, all while the people at the top tell you how lucky you are to be part of the revolution.
The workers at Mercor knew they were getting screwed. They knew they should push back. But they couldn’t afford to. That’s not a bug in the system - that’s the feature. When people are desperate enough, you can make them accept anything. Even a 24% pay cut for the same work.
And before anyone starts with the “but the market sets wages” nonsense, let me be clear: this isn’t the invisible hand of the market. This is the very visible hand of a company that knows it has workers over a barrel and is squeezing accordingly.
The promise was always that technology would free us from drudgery. That automation would give us more time for the things that matter. That AI would handle the boring stuff while humans focused on creativity and connection. Instead, we got humans doing the boring stuff for poverty wages while AI handles the profitable parts.
Here’s what really gets me: if the companies on the bleeding edge of AI can’t figure out how to treat workers decently, what hope does the rest of the economy have? These are supposed to be the smart guys, the innovators, the people building tomorrow. And their big innovation is figuring out how to pay people less for the same work.
The whole thing is demoralizing, which is exactly the word that worker used. Not just unfair or frustrating - demoralizing. That’s what happens when you realize the future everyone’s been promising is actually just a worse version of the present with better marketing.
So yeah, the AI boom is here. The stock market loves it. The VCs are throwing money at anything with “AI” in the name. And the people actually building these systems? They’re taking pay cuts and hoping the guaranteed income lasts long enough to make rent.
Welcome to utopia. It pays $16 an hour.