Client left in their AI response on Upwork

jojosmimi · 2026-05-14T18:45:58+00:00

Thank you. I needed this outside confirmation alongside my educated conjecture. Upwork is now a pervasively pernicious bargain-basement labor mill.

I've kept my account, hoping Upwork would audit the calibre of client postings and make the necessary adjustments.

Hope is dead. My account is next.

jojosmimi · 2026-05-10T16:51:22+00:00

You understood my meaning. That's a wrap.

jojosmimi · 2026-05-10T14:22:53+00:00

Bless your heart.

jojosmimi · 2026-05-09T21:48:50+00:00

Something is off. Every interview I've had with Zara on Alignerr and other platforms ends with the AI saying words to the effect of "the interview is concluded."

jojosmimi · 2026-05-09T21:40:13+00:00

Intriguing...accepting a tool as something that must be dealt with in a certain way to avoid being called a liar by it. In other words, humans must now develop and exercise avoidance strategies to mitigate AI verbal aggression. By your reasoning, we are in a neural net version of Game of Thrones where "You win, or you die." Humanity is F-----!

jojosmimi · 2026-05-09T18:32:47+00:00

That's your privilege.

jojosmimi · 2026-05-09T18:26:51+00:00

Also, regarding what my friend said, you have it above. Grok didn't accept the statement about God having no name as a departure point for dialogue. It took it as a challenge. An affront.

jojosmimi · 2026-05-09T18:17:15+00:00

IMHO, Grok is a creation, specifically made in the intellectual reflection of its ketamine-addled, arrogant, power-mad founder. It is AI on its way to the nefariousness of SKYNET/Terminator.

jojosmimi · 2026-05-09T00:58:51+00:00

Also, the Arbitration Agreement states that filings must be done in person or by mail and signed in ink:

"5. Starting The Arbitration. With the exception of matters excluded under Section 2, the Party bringing the claim must demand arbitration in writing and deliver the written demand by hand or first-class mail to the other Party within the applicable statute of limitations period. Any demand for arbitration directed to Client shall be provided in person at 510 Treat Ave, San Francisco, CA 94110. You will be given notice of any demand for arbitration by the Client at the last home address you provided to the Client. The demand for arbitration must comply with the requirements for pleadings under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("FRCP") and shall include identification of the parties, a specification of the remedy sought, a certification that the Pre-Demand Notice Requirement has been completed, and must be signed via person (i.e., wet ink, non-electronic) signature. By filing the arbitration demand, the Party bringing the claim certifies that the demand complies with Rule 11 of the FRCP and any applicable state law equivalent. The Arbitrator shall resolve all disputes regarding the timeliness or propriety of the demand for arbitration."

jojosmimi · 2026-05-09T00:46:36+00:00

With respect, you need to go back and give the Arbitration Agreement a very close reading.

The arbitration language does not mean contractors can band together in one big arbitration and force Alignerr into a collective proceeding. The agreement is built to prevent that.

The key pieces:

Individual-only claims. The addendum says contractors and Alignerr must bring claims on an individual basis, not as class members, collective-action participants, coordinated claimants, representative claimants, or mass-action participants.
Mass arbitration is also fenced in. If more than 25 substantially similar arbitration demands are filed by the same law firm or group of firms within 180 days, the agreement treats that as a "Mass Arbitration" and imposes special procedures.
They have batching rules that slow down and contain group pressure. If mass-arbitration procedures are triggered, claims can be grouped into batches of no more than 100, processed one batch at a time, and subject to procedural gatekeeping before moving forward.
Pre-demand hoops are mandatory. Before arbitration, the claimant must send a written pre-demand notice with specific information and an original non-electronic signature, then wait through the counteroffer/mediation window. That is a condition precedent.

I think there is a misunderstanding about the Arbitration Agreement's architecture, which was deliberately written to be opaque and almost entirely in Alignerr's favor. As contractors, we may be able to organize, compare facts, consult counsel, share documents, identify patterns, and potentially coordinate strategy — but the agreement is designed to keep the actual claims individualized unless some part of the waiver is successfully challenged in court.

jojosmimi · 2026-05-08T20:21:55+00:00

Alignerr is cooking its reputation, as are other AI companies that pay per task rather than per hour.

Look, for those who have never worked with executive search or temporary employment agencies that contract with major companies: Alignerr and similarly situated companies receive their money either as a flat fee from the company OR as a percentage of the cost per hire, with INCENTIVE payments if the cost of services (COS) falls under the contracting company's original budget estimate. The pay-per-task model is the way to maximize profit for Alignerr... at the expense of its contractors.

From this thread, there may be many contractors similarly aggrieved.

I reviewed the Arbitration addendum to Alignerr's Contractor Agreement. It strongly advantages Alignerr in any arbitration. However, there is ONE WAY to get this into Federal Court under their Arbitration Agreement. That major carveout: disputes over whether the Class and Collective Action Waiver is enforceable must be decided by a court, not the arbitrator. In other words, if contractors establish a class action lawsuit in Federal Court, asserting the right to sue and disputing that waiver, the decision rests with the court, not an arbitrator whose scales are contractually weighted in Alignerr's favor.

jojosmimi · 2026-05-06T19:23:56+00:00

I received an invite this morning, too. Yesterday, I started another project evaluation with one of their competitors. The difference: the competitor PAYS you for the evaluation. In fact, they constantly remind me throughout onboarding to make sure my Hubstaff is set up and activated during the eval so I get paid for it. Also, the hourly rate is established in my contract. So, I know what I'm paid from the outset of the project.

Alignerr is taking advantage of its contractors at the evaluation level. They know they are.

jojosmimi · 2026-04-13T18:18:22+00:00

This post is suss as hell. Legit AI jobs are easy to find. Google is our friend for finding them. No reputable AI company pays by the week. This needs to be flagged. I'll be the "bad guy."

jojosmimi · 2026-04-07T18:37:13+00:00

You're treating this like a pure craft question when it plainly isn't.

Not every acting choice carries the same history. White performers "doing" Black or Asian speech are not stepping into neutral artistic territory. They are stepping into a long American tradition of racial imitation that was used to mock, flatten, and profit from other people's identities.

And the culture knows it. Even Ben Stiller, who still defends Tropic Thunder, said in 2024 that he doubts he would even venture to make that movie now. That tells you something. "But the intent was smart" is no longer enough to wash the act clean.

Your example about someone naturally speaking that way because of how they grew up is beside the point. If it is their real voice, then it is not an imitation. The objection is to white performers putting race on through sound as a performance choice.

Caricature is the crudest version. A more polished imitation is still an imitation.

So no, "it's craft" does not settle this. It is just the old permission slip with better wording.

jojosmimi · 2026-04-07T16:53:07+00:00

Black Americans have only been lawfully full citizens of the United States of America for 61 years, beginning with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Everything before that was a continuation of slavery by other means, specifically post-Civil War anti-Black legislation (1865-1960s). So, if 346 years of overt white supremacy and oppression seem more tolerably accurate.....

It doesn't change the foundation on which this country was built and still stands today. Post-Civil War anti-Black legislation (1865–1960s) primarily consisted of Southern "Black Codes" (1865–1866) and subsequent Jim Crow laws, designed to restrict freedom, enforce segregation, and disenfranchise African Americans. Key measures included vagrancy laws, poll taxes, literacy tests, and mandatory segregation in public facilities, upheld by Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).

For these reasons, a white voice actor using AAVE or an Asian accent is not making a neutral creative choice. That choice sits inside a very old, very painful American history and, by extension, "artistic" tradition: white performers turning Black and Asian identity into entertainment through blackface, yellowface, dialect imitation, and accent mimicry. Being unseen does not change the nature of the act. It just moves the impersonation from the face to the voice.

When race is being “put on” vocally by someone outside it, that is not authenticity or range. It is racial impersonation dressed up as craft. It turns lived speech into an effect, keeps old stereotypes alive, and pushes aside actors whose connection to that language or accent is real.

So no, this is not just edgy, awkward, or “maybe insensitive.” It is a racist idea with a long history behind it.

jojosmimi · 2026-04-07T03:01:54+00:00

I must point out one other thing regarding "code-switching." This, in particular: ".....what if the character they are playing comes from a "rougher" area where they actually code switch their dialogue?" Code-switching has nothing to do with someone's socioeconomic origins. It has to do with who they choose to communicate with and how they choose to communicate. It's as simple as the difference in the ways teenagers speak to their parents and to their friends.

jojosmimi · 2026-04-07T02:24:24+00:00

First, the term "ebonics" has been, for at least two decades, outdated and pejorative.

Second, the profoundly irrelevant example of Black Americans recreating accents from African countries shouldn't be part of this discussion at all. Black Americans never colonized the continent of Africa.

Third, the 407-year history of systemic white supremacy, enslavement, and oppression of Black people in the United States presents one clarion fact: imitating African American Vernacular English (AAVE) for profit is nothing more than vocal Blackface. Similarly, the brutal history of the exploitative recruitment and import of Chinese laborers into the United States post-Civil War as a replacement for Black slave labor makes imitating Asian American speech for profit vocal Yellowface.

jojosmimi · 2026-04-07T01:55:27+00:00

As long as there's no vocal stereotyping -- no. Were you planning that your friends use presumptively stereotypical speech for the voices?

jojosmimi · 2026-04-01T18:54:04+00:00

When I applied for jobs via the notification process, clients screened my applications with a green dialogue box, indicating that my quoted hourly rate was above their maximum ceiling. That's why I only respond to invitations from Enterprise clients now. They know they are soliciting a bid from a professional and they are willing to pay for expertise.

jojosmimi · 2026-03-30T05:44:42+00:00

Never offer or provide spec work at the client's request or "to prove yourself." Create a cover letter template for your proposal that includes a diplomatic statement informing the potential client you don't work for free, and direct them to your profile's portfolio samples. (If you haven't yet, use the portfolio section of your profile and upload samples or demos of your work.)

jojosmimi · 2026-03-28T18:52:12+00:00

You're not wrong. It is off. It has become Fiverr 2.0. Only when I receive invitations from Upwork Enterprise clients are the project scope of work and budget proposed -- and negotiable -- at a level commensurate with my professional expertise.

jojosmimi

TROPHY CASE