Rest of World

After completing a Ph.D. earlier this year on technologies such as artificial intelligence reshaping agricultural work in South Africa, I was ready to start an academic career. I imagined that I would teach students, supervise research, and shape the next generation of scholars. But my first job offer did not come from a university. It was from a recruiter, who invited me to train an AI system to design assessments, teach undergraduate students, and mark essays. In short, I was being asked to transfer everything I had learned over the last decade to AI.

I agreed to an interview. You may ask: Why would anyone agree to train an AI model in the very skills they took years to acquire? The answer, in part, is the socioeconomic reality in South Africa. The role offered 600 rand ($37) an hour in a country where the national minimum wage is 30.23 rand ($2) an hour, and where youth unemployment stood at 47.4% in the second quarter of 2026. So when the opportunity to earn a livelihood collides with your principle on helping a technology that can compete with you one day, what do you do? I am not the only one who had to consider that trade-off.