If you have already taken the job or must do it, do me a favor and spin the mouse and tab around unusually while doing your task. Just subtle malicious compliance is probably enough to fuck up the training (?)

The irony is that CNC did this to the guys who manually worked milling machines and turned lathes.

Do it, and then after you get paid, release all the programming and machine time recordings online into the public domain. Then at the very least, it might be used to train an open-source AI model that anyone can use. Or better yet, collaborate with the folks working on the FreeCAD CAM workbench and get the ball rolling yourself if you think this sort of AI CAM thing is feasible.

People will tell you don't do it but you can't completely isolate yourself from contributing to damages of aggressive capitalism unless you live in a cave. You buy detergent? Some of that money likely goes to a shareholder who also has AI stocks or invests money in military technologies that are sold to Israel for genocide. Anyone who says don't do it haven't really thought this through. Many people here likely curse Jeff Bezos but use amazon for the convenience of it or curse google and use google maps etc. Yours is atleast a genuine survival issue. If you can keep doing this for a year with some subtle level of malicious compliance you might feel better about it. Just make sure they will hold their end of the bargain.

Their catch is they'll say your footage isn't suitable for training and will only pay for a small portion that they claim can be used for training

Someone asks when I'm already broke and supporting a friend. Try a GoFund me, what can I say, ask mods to let you link your GoFund me here.

Just do it wrong. Half ass the fuck out of it and milk it for what you can before they catch on. Fuck those pigs

I remember when copywriters went through this exact same scenario like a year and a half ago.

poison the data

My dad was a machinist. I know automation for their jobs is highly desired. In an ideal socialist world, we would need experts to automate everything for us anyway, so the work you do is laying the ground work for that future to exist; we know it's going to be misused, I would say do it, document things as best you can for the next generation in a common book you keep to yourself.

Additionally, we know AI is pretty shit, Its more likely there will be a robotics breakthrough that will get people there. I think if you go in and get paid, and keep your eyes open for ways to sabotage the data set. (Being inefficient or bad at your job is a way to keep the gig going as long as possible)... there's hope.

Someone is going to do it if you decline. I admire your principles but you have to eat... take the job, stay healthy, we'll need you to help us fight the inevitable rise of the machines.

I really wanted to work the phrase G-Code Virus in there too, but I got nothing.

I think its important to consider: what does doing the job to you.

If you feel miserable all the time, then you may burn out or fall into a depression and may burn through your potential $ 300k fast. This means you need to consider that you can do this job without harming yourself. Like getting in "work mode" and forgetting about the negative implications that you think may happen to others during work hours.

Thanks for sharing your dilemma so openly and for caring about others.

You can take the $125 and poison their data by making a few mistakes every time. Just do it as inefficiently as possible, as you're billed by the hour. You'll make more money and they'll have more work and less useful data.

Do it. A lot of these AI companies are going to go bankrupt. Companies are paying a premium for data on the hope that it'll make them lots of money, but real world applications do not always follow. A lot of these companies are ill equipped to deliver what they claim.

Even the big AI companies are struggling to match the promised gains versus their costs.

Someone will take the job, so take it. Its basically speculative investors money. Maybe they will succeed maybe they won't, but you can have the money and need the money.