AI put 40,000 Kenyan essay-writers out of business

What the internet gave, AI took away, reports the New York Times. At the peak of the diploma-mill boom, 40,000 Kenyans earned a good living writing essays for cheating overseas college students. In 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT. The online gig economy crashed.

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Teresios Bundi worked his way through college writing American students' essays, write Adam Satariano and Paul Mozur. Instead of using his public-health degree, he started an essay-writing business in Nairobi, employing college students.

After the crash, he "closed his essay-writing business and struggled to find a career path," they write. He now works for a nonprofit helping young Kenyans find opportunities in the digital economy. “A.I. is coming for bankers, for accountants, it’s coming for engineers, and A.I. will come for architects,” Bundi said. “It’s coming for everybody.”

Kenya's government is heavily in debt, taxes are high and salaried jobs are scarce, reports the Times. "More than 100,000 students graduate from Kenyan universities each year into an economy" that provides few opportunities.

U.S. unemployment is low. But AI is making it harder for new college graduates to find their first job, notes Yale Insights. Some predict doom. Others see a "productivity boom."

Professors are trying to teach AI skills to brand graduates as ready for the workforce, but their students understand the tools better than they do. And it's all changing very rapidly.