Nairobi: AI Disrupts the Academic Homework Market

In Nairobi, a sector dedicated to writing assignments for foreign students, which employed at least 40,000 people at the beginning of the decade, has collapsed following the arrival of ChatGPT in 2022. Roles for "humanizers" remain, while other online tasks have disappeared. Kenya had been encouraging these digital jobs since 2016, supported by players like Samasource.

"Humanizers" Remain, Online Tasks Disappear

Kenyan workers known as "humanizers" are currently reworking AI-generated texts to pass plagiarism checks, according to the New York Times. Meanwhile, other digital jobs, such as transcription, data annotation, and content moderation for Meta, have vanished. Approximately 80% of jobs in Kenya are informal. Mark Graham, a professor at Oxford, believes similar upheavals could occur in other countries.

A Market Encouraged Since 2016 and Fueled by Data Labeling

Since 2016, the Kenyan government has actively promoted online work. Companies like Samasource have participated in data labeling used to train artificial intelligence systems.

The Academic Assignment Industry Collapses After 2022

An industry focused on writing academic papers for foreign students, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom, had developed in Nairobi, with thousands of Kenyans working in fields such as medicine, computer science, or engineering, sometimes using their clients' university credentials. According to researchers, at the beginning of the decade, at least 40,000 people were employed in this sector in Nairobi. The launch of ChatGPT in 2022 led to a sharp decline in prices and order volume. Teresios Bundi, 34, claims to have written over 2,500 papers in twelve years, charging between $40 and $70 each. He warns that AI is already affecting many professions, citing bankers, accountants, engineers, and architects.