How AI wiped out an entire industry in Nairobi
ChatGPT's rise collapsed Kenya's contract essay-writing industry, which once employed 40,000 people in Nairobi, cutting $40–70-per-paper earnings after 2022.
The New York Times reports that generative AI, primarily ChatGPT, wiped out Kenya's ghostwriting business, which at its peak employed at least 40,000 people in Nairobi writing academic papers for US and UK students. Writers like Teresios Bundi, who produced over 2,500 papers in twelve years, saw prices and orders collapse after ChatGPT's 2022 launch. Related gig work such as transcription, data annotation, and Meta content moderation has also dried up, leaving 'humanizers' who rewrite AI text to evade plagiarism checks. Kenya's government had promoted online gig work since 2016, and roughly 80 percent of the country's jobs are informal.
- At least 40,000 people worked in Nairobi's essay-writing industry at its peak
- Charges of $40–70 per paper collapsed after ChatGPT launched in 2022
- Remaining workers are 'humanizers' reworking AI text past plagiarism checks
- Oxford researcher expects similar AI-driven labor upheavals worldwide
- Products
- ChatGPT
- Organizations
- SamasourceNew York Times
- Countries
- Kenya
- AI models
- ChatGPT
From the original article
1 min read at the-decoder.com
In Kenya, ChatGPT wiped out an entire business model: writing academic papers for foreign students. The article How AI wiped out an entire industry in Nairobi appeared first on The Decoder.
By Maximilian Schreiner · the-decoder.com
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