Demand for expert-annotated data on the part of leading AI labs has created an expert gig economy with the potential to reshape white collar work and society's understanding of expertise. In this research, we study the vision for the future of expertise described in the public communication of five industry data annotation organizations and their CEOs, as reflected on social media feeds and public appearances on podcasts. We find that the industry envisions AI expertise as cheap, meaning that it can offer a better return on investment than human expertise. Human expertise, meanwhile, is viewed as an extractable resource, the value of which can be judged relative to AI expertise. Finally, institutional expertise (such as that created or possessed by universities and corporations) is viewed as in need of liberation or reform, such that it can be incorporated into the latest artificial intelligence systems. Our findings have implications for human experts, whose professional lives may be transformed and revalued by this industry, as well as for societal institutions that mediate expertise. We close this work with a series of provocations intended to elicit consideration of how society can best approach an AI-driven expert gig economy and the cheap expertise it intends to produce.

翻译：领先AI实验室对专家标注数据的需求催生了一个可能重塑白领工作及社会对专家认知的专家零工经济。本研究通过分析五家行业数据标注组织及其CEO在社交媒体和播客公开亮相中的公共传播内容，探究其对专家未来的构想。我们发现，该行业将AI专家能力视为廉价资源，意味着其能提供比人类专家更优的投资回报率。与此同时，人类专家被视作可提取的资源，其价值需参照AI专家能力进行评判。最后，机构专家能力（如大学或企业创造或拥有的专家能力）被视为亟待解放或改革的对象，以便能融入最新人工智能系统。我们的研究对可能因该行业而经历职业转型与价值重估的人类专家，以及协调专家能力的社会机构均具有启示意义。本文尾声提出一系列挑衅性思考，旨在引发学界对社会如何最佳应对AI驱动的专家零工经济及其意图生产的廉价专家能力的讨论。