ChatGPT left those in Kenya who made a living writing essays on behalf of students unemployed
The rapid development of artificial intelligence has drastically changed the unusual online labor market that had formed over the years in Kenya. This refers to freelancers who prepared essays, homework, and other academic papers for students in exchange for money.
ChatGPT has left those who made a living writing essays on behalf of students in Kenya unemployed
In this market, the clients were not mostly Kenyan students. On the contrary, young people in Kenya earned an income by completing assignments for students studying in various countries around the world. However, after the emergence of ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools, the demand for such services decreased sharply.
The widespread occurrence of this situation in Kenya was also influenced by the state of the country's labor market. More than 100,000 students graduate from Kenyan higher education institutions every year, but there are not enough jobs for all of them in the country.
As a result, many highly educated young people were forced to work in the informal sector and online. One such direction was preparing academic work for students abroad in exchange for money.
One of those who worked in this field is Teriosis Bundi.
In 2011, he moved from the countryside to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and entered university. At that time, one of his friends suggested an unusual way to earn extra income — writing academic papers for other students for money.
Bundi started this work during his student years and later turned it into his main source of income.
According to the source, over 12 years, he wrote more than 2.5 thousand essays. This means an average of more than 200 academic papers per year.
Even after graduating from university, Bundi did not leave this field. Instead, he started his own online business preparing academic work for students.
As orders increased, he stopped completing some of them himself and began delegating them to other students. In this way, a simple freelance job turned into a small online business.
Bundi's university specialization was related to the field of public health. However, he chose not to work in this field.
The reason was financial: preparing assignments for other students brought him at least five times more income than working in his specialty.
The situation changed dramatically after 2022.
After ChatGPT was released for public use, some students decided there was no need to pay a person to prepare an essay or other written assignment. This is because generative artificial intelligence could prepare similar texts in a very short time and almost for free.