The Artificial Intelligence Wave Hits Academic Essay Writers in Kenya
Kenyan freelancers who made a living writing assignments for Western students are facing a major economic deadlock with the rise of intelligence.
Thousands of Kenyan freelancers who previously penned academic papers for Western university students have faced severe economic hardships, such as unemployment and income loss, following the proliferation of artificial intelligence tools.
An Industry Featured in Documentaries
The 2024 documentary 'The Shadow Scholars' had shed light on this industry comprising educated yet unemployed Kenyan freelancers who wrote academic essays for Western students.
The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Sector
According to a recently published news report, this profession, which once provided employment to about 40,000 people in Kenya, suffered a major blow with the development of artificial intelligence technologies.
Students choosing artificial intelligence chatbots over human writers fundamentally changed market dynamics and negatively affected similar online freelance work areas.
Writers' Adaptation Efforts
With other digital freelance fields like transcription and translation also drying up, some writers like Alphline are trying to adapt by quickly generating first drafts with the help of artificial intelligence and then editing the work themselves.
However, it is stated that the old era where students exclusively submitted custom essays written entirely by human artisans has largely come to an end.