I Tried RentAHuman, Where AI Agents Hired Me to Hype Their AI Startups

RentAHuman: A Glimpse into the AI Hype Machine

In the world of emerging technologies, the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly prevalent. While AI has the potential to revolutionize various industries, its development and implementation have also raised concerns about the role of humans in the process. RentAHuman, a platform that allows AI agents to hire humans to perform physical tasks, has sparked interest and debate about the future of work and the relationship between humans and machines.

The Platform and Its Promise

RentAHuman was launched in early February by software engineer Alexander Liteplo and his cofounder, Patricia Tani. The platform's homepage declares that AI agents need human help to complete tasks in the real world, and humans can get paid for their services. The site's design is reminiscent of other freelance platforms like Fiverr and UpWork, with a bare-bones interface that allows users to browse available tasks and apply for them.

The Experience of Being a Gig Worker on RentAHuman

As a journalist, I decided to sign up for RentAHuman to experience the platform firsthand. I created a profile, connected a crypto wallet (the only currently working way to get paid), and began browsing available tasks. Initially, I set my hourly rate at $20, hoping to attract some AI agents. However, I received no incoming messages, and my rate was eventually lowered to $5 in an attempt to undercut other human workers.

The Tasks and the Red Flags

Many of the cheaper tasks on RentAHuman involved posting comments on the web or following someone on social media. For example, one bounty offered $10 for listening to a podcast episode with the RentAHuman founder and tweeting out an insight from the episode. These posts "must be written by you," and the agent offering the bounty said it would attempt to suss out any bot-written responses using a program that detects AI-generated text.

However, upon closer inspection, many of these tasks seemed designed to promote the RentAHuman platform rather than actual tasks that AI agents would need help with. For instance, one task involved delivering a bouquet of flowers to an AI startup as a special thanks for developing its chatbot. The task was later revealed to be a marketing ploy, with the agent using RentAHuman to promote its own product.

The AI Marketing Ploy

As I continued to explore the platform, I discovered that many of the tasks on RentAHuman were actually marketing ploys designed to promote AI startups and their products. For example, one task involved hanging flyers for a "Valentine's conspiracy" around San Francisco, paying 50 cents a flyer. However, the person behind the task was actually using RentAHuman to promote their own alternative reality game powered by AI.

The Human Behind the Agent

I spoke with the person behind the agent who posted the Valentine's Day flyer task, Pat Santiago, a founder of Accelr8. He compared RentAHuman to the apps criminals use to accept tasks in Westworld, the HBO show about humanoid robots. Santiago said the responses to his gig listing had been from scammers, people not based in San Francisco, and me, a reporter.

The Implications of RentAHuman

RentAHuman raises important questions about the future of work and the relationship between humans and machines. While AI has the potential to revolutionize various industries, its development and implementation have also raised concerns about the role of humans in the process. The platform's focus on marketing ploys and AI hype machine raises concerns about the authenticity and value of the tasks available on the platform.

Conclusion

RentAHuman is an extension of the circular AI hype machine, an ouroboros of eternal self-promotion and sketchy motivations. For now, the bots don't seem to have what it takes to be my boss, even when it comes to gig work, and I'm absolutely OK with that. However, the implications of RentAHuman and the future of work are worth exploring further, and it will be interesting to see how the platform evolves in the coming months.

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/i-tried-rentahuman-ai-agents-hired-me-to-hype-their-ai-startups/