Artificial Intelligence is blamed for taking away thousands of jobs. But, it also creates a few — at least for now. That’s because some artificial intelligence systems are still pretty dumb. They need smart people to train them so they can become more intelligent. Unfortunately most sites that pay humans to train bots pay poorly. There’s one exception: Data Annotation.
This site legitimately pays between $20 and $45 per hour. However, the high end of the range is for people who can train systems in math, programing, and science. But even Data Annotation has its drawbacks.
What is Data Annotation?
Data Annotation works with companies like Microsoft and Anthropic that are developing AI models to do everything from writing marketing pitches to solving physics equations. However, the programs make mistakes, so the site enlists talented humans to train them.
How it works
If you want to sign up to train AI models through Data Annotation, you will need to fill out a screening questionnaire that’s likely to require about 45 minutes to an hour of your time.
You’ll first, however, self-select an area of expertise. The categories to choose from include:
- General ($20 + per hour)
- Math ($40 + per hour)
- Programming ($40 + per hour)
- Biology ($40 + per hour)
- Physics ($40 + per hour)
- Chemistry ($40 + per hour)
- Chinese bilingual ($25 + per hour)
- Hebrew bilingual ($25 + per hour)
After completing your assessment, the site will review your answers and contact you if it needs your expertise.
Data Annotation review
Assuming your skills are in demand for training AI models, Data Annotation can provide you with flexible work that you can do at any hour of the day or night.
The sight brags that its projects are available 24/7/365. And many people who have worked with this site say they’ve earned thousands of dollars here.
Your job
What are you doing when working here? Usually, you’re labeling things, answering questions, writing or working on specific problems. All the work is done remotely, so from wherever you are. And most of it can be done at your leisure — basically whenever you have time.
You do not need to commit to working for a set number of hours or on any particular date or time.
You simply choose projects you want to work on from the menu you’re presented after being accepted. Each project describes what you’ll be doing and how much you’ll be paid.
The site says it has thousands of open projects. And, as you successfully complete the first assignments, you’ll open up access to “virtually limitless” work.
There are, however, “qualification” surveys, which can take a considerable amount of time. The qualification surveys are very similar to the actual work you’ll be asked to do, so some workers suggest that they’re a way of getting a certain amount of free labor. However, we saw no sign that the qualification surveys were being overused like workers maintain they are at competitor site Outlier.
Pay
Freelancers are paid roughly one week following completion of a project via PayPal. The site does not use any other payment methods. So if you can’t accept PayPal (it doesn’t operate in some countries), you can’t work with Data Annotation.
Job security
The one and only complaint we see about working here is that there is zero job security. You could make thousands of dollars in one month, but then find there are no projects at all in the next.
And, you are working with bots, not people. So, if you have questions or concerns about the process, there is no one to ask for help. There’s also no one to answer questions if you’re confused about a job you’re working on here. A YouTuber, who has worked with the site for a year, suggest that you simply read the instructions carefully and then trust yourself.
If you are not doing the projects correctly, you won’t get instruction on how to self-correct. You simply won’t get any new projects.
Recommendations
This site offers some good opportunity. But don’t count on the income because it can and will stop unexpectedly. You can sign up with Data Annotation here.
Other options: If you like answering questions for a living, consider JustAnswer. If you’re great in science and math, consider signing up as a tutor at Wyzant.
What their users say: (from Glassdoor)
Work is interesting. And you have some level of autonomy over the themes of your work. Super convenient to choose your own hours. Great pay. Quick to provide your wages. Awesome way to make money for big purchases, vacations, or just having some extra cash month to month. But the number of hours available can vary greatly from week to week. Available tasks vary on an individual basis. You may not want to depend on this work as your sole source of income.
Work on your own time – Can earn up to $40/hr at home. But there’s a lack of communication. And you can be removed without any warning
Fun and easy
Fun work, easy to use platform. Provides flexibility to make money when you are available. Fairly straightforward process, interesting work, and pays out fast. But the work can be unsteady. Sometimes it is slow and sometimes there are more tasks than you can do in a week.
You can pick up a project and start working anytime and from anywhere. You determine what projects you will pick up and commit to work on. And the process to get qualified was straight forward. Set up to get paid was not complicated, and they delivered on their payments. But after securing about $2k for myself within 2 weeks, I found myself without any projects to work on, as if they cut me off from continuing to work for them. However, I did receive the money I earned from my jobs.
It took 3 weeks of doing 1 task a day for their qualification test, which was similar to the project I was doing for pay. Good practice, but free labor.
Shadowbanned?
They can and will shadowban you at some point. Once you see the qualifiers disappear in your dashboard, you are done permanently. There’s nobody to contact; there’s no way to appeal it. No notice, no feedback, no recourse, no support, nothing. They can just take your livelihood away from you with the click of a button! No conversation whatsoever. No job security.
People get dropped with no explanation. Unreliable work availability for some. It’s not very fulfilling when you just do tasks and don’t see the results of your actions or get any feedback – even when the tasks are enjoyable
Flexible hours, easy to do. But no clear way of knowing who you’re working for. No feedback on tasks.
Project stream is unreliable. Support email does not work so there is no way to get in contact with admin teams. I was dropped from the platform with no explanation after over a year of consistent work. There is no way to find out why or what happened as you receive no reply when using the support email, and there is no way to complete extra qualifications etc to solve the issue.
No answers
Zero communication from the company, even when submitting a support ticket. Because of this, Reddit is full of people desperately looking for answers. Even when you’re in a project slack channel, your questions are ignored. You’ll have no idea if you’ll be been kicked from the platform for just experiencing a project drought, there’s no distinction. And if you’re not on the platform as soon as those tasks go up, you’ll miss out. So the claim of “making your own schedule” is completely false. I’ve been looking at a dry dashboard for a month. But I’m not kicked from the platform. The drought came with no warning so I couldn’t even plan or it. Nobody from the company or project slack channels will answer any questions.
Remote, work from anywhere
– Set your own schedule
– Great for at-home caregivers/parents for some extra money
– Great side gig in your spare time
– Do as much or as little as you wish
– Pay is decent with options to earn higher-paying jobs if you do good work
– Interesting work that is mentally engaging
– Much more reliable available work than transcription work
Easy WFH option, with flexible and diverse projects – Decent pay – Interesting work in many areas that is adaptable based on different qualifications you complete.
Great pay
If your work is good, you get access to higher-paying projects. Some of mine pay $42.50-$45 per hour. The work is interesting, often fun, and you can learn a lot about different topics. You can also specialize in areas in which you have expertise. The work is fully remote and the schedule is 100% flexible. If you test well, there’s enough available work that you could work more than 40 hours per week. On the flip side, if you want to work only a couple of hours, or take a few weeks off altogether, there is no penalty. The flexibility that the job provides (not to mention the good compensation) outweighs any cons.
