According to Futurism, the AI grading company Mercor just shut down its massive Meta project called Musen, which employed around 5,000 data labelers and was expected to continue until at least 2026. Workers were told the project had been extended through year-end, only to get blindsided by the sudden cancellation right before holidays. Mercor is offering to rehire these same workers for an extremely similar project called Nova, but with a brutal pay cut—dropping from $21 per hour down to just $16 for what employees say is functionally identical work. The company claims the lower rate is justified by “steadier task volumes” and “higher hour caps,” but workers describe feeling financially trapped into accepting the demoralizing terms. One contractor summarized the situation perfectly: “We needed to have the guaranteed income, even if it’s demoralizing.”
AI Utopia Meets Wage Dystopia
Here’s the thing about all those grand AI promises from Sam Altman and Satya Nadella—they’re looking pretty hollow when you see what’s actually happening to the people doing the grunt work. We’re talking about data labelers, the human backbone that makes AI models actually function, getting their wages slashed by nearly 25% overnight. And this is happening while tech companies account for 92% of US GDP growth and Amazon posts billions in profits while laying off 14,000 corporate employees. There’s a massive disconnect between the utopian rhetoric and the brutal reality for workers.
The Great Contractor Shift
What we’re witnessing is the systematic degradation of stable employment into precarious contract work. These aren’t isolated incidents—it’s becoming the business model. Companies like Mercor get massive contracts with OpenAI and Anthropic, then turn around and treat their workforce as completely disposable. They’re creating what Human Rights Watch calls “the gig trap”—workers trapped in algorithmically managed jobs with diminishing returns. And when you look at rising car repossessions and economic stress, people literally can’t afford to say no to these terrible offers.
Where Does This Leave Us?
So if this is how the most powerful, profitable companies in the world are treating workers during an alleged boom, what happens when the economy actually slows down? We’re already seeing debt becoming unsustainable and repossessions spiking. The AI industry promised to lift everyone up, but instead we’re getting a race to the bottom where workers are expected to do more for less. Basically, the “rising tide” of AI profits isn’t lifting any boats except the yachts owned by executives and investors. And if this is the template for the future of work, we’re all in serious trouble.
