AI Assistance and Its Impact on Writers' Pay

Participants were given the chance of completing tasks in one of three modes: independently, without any AI assistance; human-primary, where ChatGPT could assist them in editing and polishing their own work; or AI-primary, where ChatGPT would write the first draft and the person would then edit it. Some were given the choice between human-primary and independent writing, while others were given the choice of AI-primary or independent writing. Those who worked independently were always given $3 for completing their task. AI-assisted tasks were offered to workers with a random amount between $1.50 and $4.50, at $0.25 intervals.

Participants were willing to give up about $0.85–28% of the total they would have been paid–to have a first draft written by AI. Participants saw no meaningful difference in the quality of the work they produced with and without AI assistance; so it seems this is entirely down to the AIs taking over some of the work involved in the writing tasks.

This result suggests to me that much of any efficiency savings produced by LLM technology is likely to be enjoyed by employers, not workers. Workers can produce more cheaply and quickly, reducing the overall need for labor. I’m not clear what that means for individual workers–possibly those more skilled in working with AI assistants will benefit.