Entry-Level Workers Are Being Relegated To AI Babysitting And We Ought To Be Worried Sick About It

In today’s column, I examine the emerging trend of entry-level workers being placed into jobs that mainly involve babysitting AI. Here’s the deal. A company develops an AI system based on modern-era generative AI and large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, GPT-5, Claude, Grok, Gemini, Copilot, etc. The AI does the bulk of a specific job that it was designed to perform. But the job-performing AI at times encounters AI hallucinations or has other intermittent issues or errors that need to be corrected.

Into that void steps the entry-level worker. An entry-level worker is relatively cheap labor. They also don’t need much training if they are merely serving as an overseer of AI. They just need human judgment. Voilà, a match made in heaven: employ entry-level workers to babysit AI. The worker doesn’t do much for the majority of the time, other than check the inputs and double-check the outputs of the AI. You can applaud the fact that this employs entry-level workers. A disconcerting downside is that the worker is learning zilch, they aren’t making any career progress, and they are doomed once the AI gets perfected such that it no longer needs the human babysitter. We ought to be worrying about how this is going to impact young adults entering the workplace and what their future will hold for them.

Let’s talk about it. This analysis of AI breakthroughs is part of my ongoing Forbes column coverage of the latest in AI, including identifying and explaining key AI complexities (see the link here).

Jobs For Entry-Level Workers

It used to be that an entry-level worker served an apprenticeship. They began with few skills and gradually built their capabilities so that they had a long-term career ahead of them. Companies knew that an entry-level worker was limited in the value that they could provide. Nonetheless, such junior employees were a useful pair of hands and meaningfully contributed to getting work accomplished.

Plugging The Hole

Answer: Hire AI babysitters.