Research: the number of freelance jobs on platforms like Upwork, in areas where generative AI excels, have dropped by as much as 21% since ChatGPT's debut

There's now data to back up what freelancers have been saying for months — Jennifer Kelly, a freelance copywriter in the picturesque …

Wall Street Journal 2024-06-22 Christopher Mims

Context & Ripple Effects

Earlier coverage documented AI-generated work entering Upwork and Fiverr and creating disputes over content provenance and delivery quality. This research adds a demand-side measure to those freelancer reports: clients appear to be posting fewer assignments in the task categories where generative AI is most capable.

The finding also fits reports that companies were already replacing some marketing and social-media writing work with LLM tools when cost savings outweighed quality concerns. It matters because marketplaces concentrate both the affected independent workers and the transactions through which that substitution becomes visible.

First-order effects

Freelancers whose work overlaps most with generative AI face fewer platform opportunities, increasing competition for the assignments that remain.
Upwork-like marketplaces see reduced job-posting volume in AI-exposed categories, weakening a key source of transaction activity in those segments.

Second-order effects

Clients have more incentive to use AI for first drafts or lower-value work, while reserving human freelancers for tasks requiring judgment, accountability, or differentiated quality.
As AI output expands, the existing mistrust around AI-generated marketplace work can raise verification and revision costs for both clients and freelancers, even where work is still commissioned.

Third-order effects

Freelance marketplaces may increasingly split into lower-priced, AI-assisted commodity work and higher-trust human-led services, rather than operating as broad undifferentiated job boards.
If declining demand persists across more task categories, independent workers’ bargaining power and platforms’ category mix could shift toward proving provenance, quality, and human expertise.

The trend: Generative AI is moving from a productivity tool to a demand-shaping force in digital labor markets, first compressing demand for standardized knowledge work.

Discussion

@cake_of_canola_oil @cake_of_canola_oil on threads
She's certainly quite smart in her chosen field. It's also pretty obvious her chosen field is not “media”. Every time she does one of these it highlights everything wrong with OpenAI, I'm surprised they keep choosing her as the messenger
@worriedaboutsatan.bsky.social Gavin Miller on bluesky
Fingers crossed people give a shit about the heroic levels of evil on display here, and don't just shrug and move on like they have with so many other examples of this horror (spotify, X, etc) [embedded post]
@moegamer.bsky.social Pete Davison on bluesky
maybe the job “CTO of OpenAI” shouldn't have been there in the first place [embedded post]
@darthbluesky.bsky.social @darthbluesky.bsky.social on bluesky
i can think of other things that maybe should not be here in the first place tbh [embedded post]
@moviessilently.bsky.social @moviessilently.bsky.social on bluesky
There's a scene in LITTLE CAESAR where Edward G Robinson's character sees a painting in a gilt frame. He asks how much, is told that it was $$$$$ and remarks “Boy, them gold frames sure cost plenty of dough.” — He can't understand the painting itself being valuable and he woul…
@whet.bsky.social Whet Moser on bluesky
“AI is going to replace work that didn't need to be done” huh? [embedded post]
@evacide.bsky.social @evacide.bsky.social on bluesky
I have known many CTOs that did not need to replaced by AI because they could have been replaced much more easily with a very short shell script. [embedded post]
@gregpak.bsky.social Greg Pak on bluesky
Imagine the deep moral vacuity you'd have to have to use the phrase “shouldn't have” here. Like it was somehow WRONG or IMMORAL for creative people to get paid for their work. Work that OpenAI has pirated to fuel their immoral, unethical machine. Deeply, deeply repugnant world…
@rincewind.run Micah on bluesky
they lie about how this will help and not hurt people until they feel that they don't need to do that anymore — and then we get the truth — the breathless headlines should keep that in mind next time, but they won't [embedded post]
@cyanogic.com @cyanogic.com on bluesky
“maybe they shouldn't have been there in the first place” — AI bros are not beating the allegations of hating art/artists and wanting to make the entire profession suffer [embedded post]
@brooklynmarie.bsky.social Brooke Binkowski on bluesky
When they tell you what they are, believe them. [embedded post]
@jesseltaylor.bsky.social Jesse on bluesky
The jobs will go away for a short while, then come back, but the people hiring will use their unsuccessful foray into AI to lower the amount paid for the creative work under the threat of pivoting back to the thing that didn't work [embedded post]
@brendelbored.bsky.social Brendel on bluesky
Writers, artists, actors, musicians, all those things are bullshit. Being a “Chief Technology Officer”? That's real as hell dawg [embedded post]
@rhymeswithnick.bsky.social @rhymeswithnick.bsky.social on bluesky
The creatives who survive this era of bullshit won't forget. [embedded post]
@thayerschool @thayerschool on x
During Commencement weekend, @OpenAI CTO and Thayer alum @miramurati spoke at a special “AI Everywhere” event at Thayer, and received an honorary degree from @dartmouth. AI is getting smarter, but she predicts that smarter AI will be more helpful AND safer. https://engineering.da…
@nealstephenson Neal Stephenson on x
Started a Substack. Have soft-pedaled it as I was learning my way around. Then along came today's Mira Murati furor, which happens to dovetail perfectly with the first post I put up just a few days ago after OpenAI's previous gaffe https://open.substack.com/...
@olifranklin Oli Franklin-Wallis on x
When you spend much time with tech people, as I have, you realise many are just like those who work for defence companies. They develop their own distorted ethics, in order to avoid the fact that what they do is morally unconscionable.
@rahll Reid Southen on x
This is insane. Won't say OpenAI didn't train on YouTube, and now basically implies some of those jobs shouldn't have been there in the first place if the “content is not very high quality.” So, they'll steal from and replace you if they think you're of “low quality”. Yikes.
@dartmouth @dartmouth on x
.@OpenAI Chief Technology Officer @miramurati, @thayerschool '12, predicts that as AI gets smarter, it will not only be more helpful, but safer. Her thoughts on the future of artificial intelligence ⤵️ https://engineering.dartmouth.edu/ ...
@nbababysecret @nbababysecret on x
[image]
@edzitron Ed Zitron on x
this is a declaration of war against creatives and it should be reported as such
@zaphodgjd Graeme Devine on x
I want AI to let us all have creative jobs while AI is washing the dishes and weeding the garden.
@iamhappytoast @iamhappytoast on x
'Maybe artists shouldn't have existed' says woman who makes money stealing from those artists and destroying their careers while also pushing a tool that will put children off learning to paint or draw in the future.
@andantonius Jon Neimeister on x
This is one of the most revolting things I've ever heard one of these leeches say. Their models are trained on OUR work and you have the AUDACITY to say our jobs shouldn't have existed in the first place? Mira, Sam, the lot of you, I say this with the utmost venom: go to hell.
@perpetualmaniac @perpetualmaniac on x
Remember how the elites said AI is nothing to worry about then they turn around and admit many jobs are going away but “maybe they shouldn't have existed at all in the first place.” More rug pulls coming.
@meganroseruiz Meg on x
The thing that gets me about Gen AI is that it literally doesn't have to exist. It doesn't fill a previously untapped market. The only thing it accomplishes is making it easier for corporations to avoid paying creative people. It's useless. Also Mira Murati's job shouldn't exist
@shakeelhashim Shakeel on x
Why do they let her do interviews still? She's abysmal at it!
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
I've always found it gross that people praise OpenAI's “noble mission” to create AGI when it's a bunch of ex-Googler's with $10M pay packages working to kill the jobs of people making 1% of what they do. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
@nickmurftweets Nick Murphy on x
If the creative jobs weren't there in the first place, Mira, there'd be nothing for you to steal.
@abebab Abeba Birhane on x
this is too much for a company that has been built on the backbone of stolen work, largely from the creative community
@its_adamneely Adam Neely on x
The way AI people talk about art as commodity is deeply vile
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
OpenAI CTO, Mira Murati, says AI will cause some creative jobs to go away, but maybe they shouldn't have existed in the first place. OpenAI's mission is to create AGI that can replace people in every viable economic activity. Killing jobs is the end goal. [video]
@seamusblackley Seamus Blackley on x
Tell me why people hate Silicon Valley without saying the word Silicon Valley.
@robertfreundlaw Rob Freund on x
“If our new product can eliminate your career, maybe you should never have had that career” is an absolutely wild position to take. The sheer arrogance and inability to read the room.
@kevinbparry Kevin Parry on x
My wisdom is that if you're celebrating this and thinking you can finally have a creative career because you can prompt, you'll for sure be replaced by the evolving tech or someone who can type faster. Art is hard, and even harder to turn into a career. There are no shortcuts.
r/singularity r on reddit
OpenAI's CTO Mira Murati -AI Could Kill Some Creative Jobs That Maybe Shouldn't Exist Anyway
r/Fauxmoi r on reddit
OpenAI CTO: AI Could Kill Some Creative Jobs That Maybe Shouldn't Exist Anyway
r/ArtistHate r on reddit
OpenAI CTO: “AI Could Kill Some Creative Jobs That Maybe Shouldn't Exist Anyway”

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