Astro Hacker News - Amazon will stop accepting new customers for Mechanical Turk

jordemort |next [-]

I turked for a bit trying to make some extra cash leading up to my wedding, but it was a very time-inefficient way to make money. I think I managed to wring 10 or 20 bucks out of it tops after plugging at it for a month.

CodesInChaos |next |previous [-]

> In a snake-eating-its-own-tail irony, a 2023 analysis found that between 33% and 46% of workers on the platform were using large language models to complete their tasks,

I assume AI use by workers has risen to the point where it renders Mechanical Turk pointless.

6510 |root |parent |next [-]

I don't see why I would care how they do the job. Just do the job, I have other things to do.

skt5 |root |parent |next |previous [-]

This likely means those consuming the outputs of Mechanical Turk don't have a good way to measure the value (aka quality) of the outputs.

If they did - then they shouldn't care whether it's a human or a LLM. And if it's a LLM - then the cost will roughly correlate to the MIN(cost of the LLM, cost of a human) to do the task.

AndrewOMartin |root |parent [-]

I think the "state of the art" of measuring the quality of outputs was to send the same task to multiple "agents" and only accept answers if over a certain amount agree. With some human review and reputation scoring sprinkled on top. It was a while since I was in this field though

moralestapia |root |parent |previous [-]

Yeah, I was doing this kind of Artificial Artificial Artificial Intelligence back in 2012 to make some extra $$$. Glad they finally "patched" that hole ^^.

pc86 |root |parent [-]

You were using LLMs in 2012?

subarctic |root |parent |next [-]

Artificial AI = stuff like mechanical turk where they get humans to do stuff computers can't do and make it look like it's "AI"

Artificial Artificial Intelligence = using computers to do mechanical turk jobs

moralestapia |root |parent [-]

You wrote the same thing twice, hehe.

But the point gets across.

simlevesque |root |parent |next |previous [-]

They were faking artificial intelligence by using real individuals.

pixel_popping |root |parent |next |previous [-]

Fiverr-5.5 was the leading model back then.

moralestapia |root |parent |previous [-]

Not LLMs. (Useful) LLMs came to the market around 2022.

nullsmack |next |previous [-]

I had no idea this was still around.

It helped me buy a Battlefield 2 "Special Forces" expansion pack back in the day.

Well, I could've bought it either way but buying it didn't impact my normal income because I did Mechanical Turk in my free time enough to get it.

root-parent |next |previous [-]

I can see a high value startup, that will provide Human Intelligence with real Humans, locked in the room, with no network, books, LLMs and monitored 24x7 with cameras.

HoldOnAMinute |root |parent |next [-]

Please enjoy each task equally

mcmcmc |root |parent |previous [-]

24/7 isolation with no stimulation outside of work? Wonder if the hallucination rate would be higher or lower

obblekk |next |previous [-]

Maybe the most unambiguous "ai will automate work" example I've seen yet.

Absolutely does not imply the workers are automated since they can now use the current models to do more complex tasks at the vast number of new AI training data startups.

Turk was simply not designed for greater complexity tasks and so much of their lunch has been eaten by startups specifically built to collect AI training data.

leohonexus |next |previous [-]

Where do I find participants for my user studies then?

josefritzishere |next |previous [-]

It's a shame. Mechanical Turk works better than any AI.

xandrius |root |parent |next [-]

It's still AI, just a different type.

CodesInChaos |root |parent [-]

The Actually Indian kind?

testuser1984 |root |parent |next [-]

American Idiot kind

cindyllm |root |parent [-]

[dead]

mghackerlady |root |parent |next |previous [-]

Hey, maybe they're Indonesian!

pwython |root |parent |next [-]

I thought they were Turkish.

expedition32 |root |parent |previous [-]

Ever been to Singapore? Their apartments have a room for a Indonesian maid.

Never underestimate just how cheap human life is!

shshsjsj |root |parent |previous [-]

mild racism, needs to be reported

aswegs8 |root |parent |next [-]

It's a joke

Faaak |root |parent |next |previous [-]

you can call the police

HoldOnAMinute |root |parent |previous [-]

India is not a race, therefore this is not racist.

brokensegue |root |parent |previous [-]

personally, i've never had good luck with MT's quality.

baggachipz |previous [-]

They moved all the Mechanical Turk workers over to robot and autotaxi piloting.

teddyh |root |parent [-]

And monitoring of “cashier-free” grocery stores.