Outlier

We love our student contributors, and they love working on Outlier. Find out why!

Meet Jean Philippe Ausina Ruiz — the person who brings Outlier opportunities to so many of our wonderful contributors.

Over the last year, Outlier has seen rapid growth. Today, we provide flexible work opportunities to hundreds of thousands of subject matter experts around the globe who contribute data used to build our customers’ — and some of the world's — most advanced Generative AI models. While this growth has been tremendous, managing it has come with challenges and one area where we have recognized the need to make improvements is increased pay transparency and reliability. Our contributors play a huge role in our mission to help build great AI, and it’s essential they can enjoy a seamless payment process that reflects the value of their expertise. Thanks to improvements to our Earnings tab, it has never been easier to track your Outlier compensation. You can view current and past earnings accrued from completed tasks, and enjoy a granular and searchable breakdown. These include details like pay rate per task or total hours worked. Additionally, you can now more easily track your real-time earnings while working on a project that’s currently in progress. We’re continually working to facilitate fast, headache-free payment resolution. Whichever third-party payment provider you use, you can take advantage of informative tooltips that help resolve common issues and minimize any payment processing delays. Finally, and perhaps most important, we’ve bolstered our support system over the past year to better manage any issues that arise with payment. Over the past 12 weeks, we have resolved 96% of pay-related inquiries within 10 days, so you can rest (or work!) easy knowing you’ll be compensated and have your questions answered in a timely manner.

Daniel Z. has no shortage of intellectual pursuits. As a PhD student at MIT, he devotes much of his time to molecular biology and electrical engineering. However, artificial intelligence has always piqued his interest. “AI has already changed the way that we go about our day-to-day lives in so many ways for the better,” he says. A few months ago, he came across an opportunity to work on Outlier, and the combination of earning extra cash while contributing to AI development was too good to pass up. Daniel has now logged more than 100 hours on Outlier, and a few particular topics continue to fuel his passion. “My favorites have been in the multi-modal series,” he says. “These are fun because they involve images. You use images and helper prompts to get the model to generate a response, then determine whether there were any reasoning errors along the way.” Even the more straightforward projects provide Daniel with a valuable glimpse at how these models work. “I've also enjoyed the single turn series,” he says. “These are relatively straightforward tasks where you generate a prompt, let the model choose between some user input responses, and grade them based on mathematical accuracy, conciseness, presentation, and so on.” Daniel would highly recommend Outlier to his friends. The platform offers great flexibility, so you can work no matter how irregular your schedule may be. Additionally, he’s been impressed by Outlier’s support network and inviting community. “The community there is great and always available to answer any questions that you might have. There are a ton of great things I’ve discovered on the platform, not to mention the experience of participating in the improvement of these new large language models.” It doesn’t hurt that Daniel feels his expertise is appreciated and valued. “I’ve made about $4,000 working for Outlier,” he says with a grin, “so not too bad.”

Our understanding of work is evolving. An increasing number of opportunities have moved away from the traditional model where, every weekday, people commute to an office and sit at a desk for eight hours before returning home. At Outlier, we marry that flexible work ethos to our mission of building great AI. We offer short-term, project-based work that allows our contributors to flex their expertise, earn some extra bucks, and do so on their own schedules. And we’re serious when we say you can work when and where you want. Our contributors work as freelancers, not full-time employees. Some work as little as a few hours a week, others far more depending on current demand for their expertise. The choice is yours. Outlier is especially compatible with other forms of work. Many people have side projects that don’t mesh well with a full-time, onsite job. They may be artists or writers whose workload varies greatly from week to week, or they’re trying to get their own businesses off the ground and need supplemental income that adapts to their demanding schedules. “My favorite part is the freedom,” says Valeria, an Outlier contributor. “You can adjust it to any type of career that you have on the side. I’m an artist and my schedule can change from week to week. If you have time, you can just make money on the side and it's very helpful.” Outlier’s project-based model is also conducive to non-work-related obligations like school or family. Students, parents, and caregivers often have irregular schedules — amd most part-time opportunities pull them away from their important obligations. Outlier allows them to get their work-life balance just right. “I'm a mom with five kids,” says Outlier contributor Gabriela. “I feel like there's flexibility if I need to take a day off because one of the kids is sick or if my oldest needs a ride. I can be there for my family and still provide for my family. So it's perfect.” If you're interested in working on Outlier and getting paid on your own time, check out opportunities here.

As an undergrad at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Carlson struggled to find part-time work that fit into his busy schedule. Last spring, a friend recommended that he look into Outlier. This friend had been using his math expertise to train AI and enjoy a nice income stream on the side, all without interfering with his coursework. Carlson jumped at the opportunity and, 200 hours of work later, he’s used his computer science skills on several AI projects. The best part? “I’ve been able to work and fit it into my schedule wherever I can,” he says. “Either in between classes or after doing homework.” Unlike most part-time jobs available to college students, Carlson’s Outlier work not only relates to his studies, but helps him further develop his programming chops. A typical project will involve reviewing AI-generated code. “I can see how large models approach different problems,” he says. “Sometimes they approach them in a novel way I wouldn’t even think of. “Also, reviewing code helped me understand where these big models tend to make errors. I’ve been able to put this experience to use in my classes.” He finds the Outlier community supportive, as well. Whether he’s stuck on a problem, or finding himself in a situation he’s never encountered before, he’s enjoyed quick, effective support from the Outlier team. Plus, there’s a bond between contributors. “I can talk to people from the same project and share tips and tricks on how to best tackle problems,” he says. “It’s a fun community.” Carlson strongly recommends Outlier to his friends, emphasizing the flexibility and intellectually challenging nature of the work. “It’s a very good opportunity for students to be able to work on state-of-the-art models that so many people use in their daily lives. It’s been really rewarding for me.” If you’d like to join Carlson and thousands of other people using their expertise to train the next generation of AI, check out the opportunities available on outlier.ai.

Welcome! Glad to have you

Welcome! We are glad to have you

We are glad you are enjoying Outlier Vishnu! Thanks for all of your contributions to the platform.

Thanks for the shoutout Mohammed!