The Disposable Workforce Behind the “Permanent” Revolution

The AI revolution is sold as a permanent and ever-advancing technological shift. But this “permanent” revolution is being built by an entirely disposable workforce. The human trainers who are the engine of this change are treated as a temporary resource to be used up and cast aside, a stark contradiction at the heart of the industry’s narrative.
The disposability is coded into their contracts. They are not employees with a stake in the company’s future; they are gig workers on short-term assignments. This structure allows companies to scale their human workforce up and down at a moment’s notice, treating them less like a team and more like a utility that can be turned on and off.
This is evident in the practice of rolling layoffs. Even as the AI industry booms and companies report record profits, the teams of human trainers are regularly “right-sized” or eliminated. The message is clear: your contribution is vital today, but you are not part of our vision for tomorrow.
This creates a profound sense of futility among the workers. They are pouring their expertise and effort into a “permanent” technological edifice from which they will be evicted as soon as their section is complete. The industry’s vision of a permanent AI revolution is one that has no permanent place for the humans who are building it.