- Mercor reported over 30,000 experts earning an average of more than $85 an hour.
- Scale AI said about 12% of its contractors hold a PhD and about 40% a master's, law degree or MBA.
- Firms that already hold years of expert work product can license it instead of commissioning it.
The networks
| Network | How it works | Published detail |
|---|---|---|
| Mercor | Matches labs with experts; hourly finder's fee and matching rate | 30,000+ experts; average over $85 an hour; $1.5 million+ paid daily |
| Labelbox Alignerr | Vetted experts hired through Alignerr Connect | Not published |
| Scale AI | Expert contractors writing RL problems | About 12% PhD; about 40% master's, law degree or MBA |
| Surge AI | Expert annotators for RLHF and RL environments | Customers include Anthropic and OpenAI |
| Prolific | Screened participants for evaluation | Not published |
Sources: TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, Labelbox, Wikipedia, Prolific.
For professional firms
The pay rates show what labs will spend on expert reasoning. A firm with years of its own templates, guidance and (with consent) de-identified work may be able to license it. Read AI data licensing for professional services firms.
Read next
Questions
How much do AI training experts earn?
TechCrunch reported Mercor's experts earn an average of over $85 an hour.