Handshake AI Hires Actors to Teach Emotion to AIs

AI Companies Seek Improvisation Talent to Enhance Emotional Understanding Models

Artificial intelligence companies are looking to harness the talents of improvisational actors to enrich their models regarding emotional understanding. If you possess a strong creative instinct, the ability to authentically express emotions, and stay true to a character, a unique opportunity awaits you. However, this offer will not lead you to the stage of a traditional theater; instead, it will allow you to contribute to the training of an AI model for one of the leading companies in the sector, according to an announcement published by Handshake.

Handshake is a company specializing in providing training data for AI giants such as OpenAI. It is part of a select group of companies striving to deliver increasingly specific training data to improve AI models. These models are often described as "irregular," excelling in certain complex tasks while failing in simpler ones. To bridge these gaps, AI companies are turning to specialized data labeling, and firms like Handshake, Mercor, and Scale AI are recruiting professionals from various fields to meet this demand.

The demand for training data from Handshake tripled last summer, and the company reached an annual revenue of $150 million last November. Handshake and its competitors boast extensive networks of professionals from diverse sectors, ranging from chemists and doctors to lawyers and screenwriters. However, many of these professionals fear that their involvement in training AI models may accelerate the obsolescence of their own careers.

Today, leading AI labs are also turning to sketch comedians, improvisational actors, and other artists. Handshake AI's announcement invites these performers to participate in a paid collaborative improvisation project in partnership with a leading AI company. Participants will be paired with other performers via video and will receive light prompts or scenarios to explore together.

This announcement seeks individuals with experience in theater, improvisation, sketch, or any other theatrical field. It emphasizes the importance of "testing the limits of the understanding of the world's best LLMs" by teaching models how to recognize or reproduce human tone and emotions. "Emotional awareness" is a key requirement, particularly the ability to recognize, express, and transition between emotions authentically and humanly. Interactions should feel grounded, human, and fun to perform.

Handshake declined to comment further, and the announcement does not specify exactly what the training data will be used for. In recent years, AI companies have fully embraced "multimodal" models capable of generating images and videos while allowing realistic vocal interactions with users. OpenAI initially tested the voice mode of ChatGPT before launching an advanced version in 2024 with a range of different voices. Elon Musk's xAI also offers voice discussion in Grok, and Claude from Anthropic has provided a voice feature in beta since last May.

Handshake's announcement states that the sessions are "unscripted and open," allowing participants to improvise scenes, explore characters, and react naturally in the moment, with significant creative freedom to shape each interaction. The role offers part-time, flexible tasks that can be integrated with auditions, classes, or rehearsals, with an average pay of $74 per hour. However, as reported by The Verge, the starting salary can decrease rapidly once a participant signs up, and the flexibility of the schedule is often limited by task availability.

The r/improv community on Reddit reacted strongly to Handshake AI's announcement, with some calling it "dystopian." One user wrote that it was "clearly just an attempt to get people to train AI models to create AI-generated videos." Another added that they are trying to teach human conversation, not how to be an improviser, joking that they planned to sabotage the entries. Another user predicted a resurgence of live comedy, as people are tired of online services and want raw, real, face-to-face entertainment. They suggested that this could be an excellent marketing angle for improv teams: "Come see real, unedited comedy that makes you laugh, NOT made by a computer."