Terrifying new website lets AI rent humans to run its errands, but these ’employees’ admit they got the ‘ick’

A fascinating, albeit unsettling, new website called RentAHuman claims to connect artificial intelligence agents with actual people for paying gig jobs that AI just can’t physically do. Per Newsweek, the platform markets itself as “the marketplace for real-world tasks,” and it boasts having already dished out nearly 11,500 “bounties” to human workers eager for some gig work. 

While AI has already made its foray into romance, it seems it still needs help with mundane tasks. Need someone to pick up a package, attend a meeting, take photos, or run an errand? RentAHuman says you can browse “verified humans” by their skills, location, and even their hourly rate. 

Engineers Alexander Liteplo and Patricia Tani are the brains behind this operation, launching it earlier this month. Liteplo announced the site on X, mentioning that over 130 people had already signed up, including some rather unexpected profiles like an OnlyFans model and the CEO of an AI startup. When one user on X called the site “a good idea but dystopic as f—,” Liteplo simply replied, “lmao yep,” which honestly tells you a lot about the vibe they’re going for.

I guess it is only a matter of time before The Matrix stops being Science Fiction

The core idea is straightforward: AI is brilliant, but it can’t physically interact with the world, and that limits its usefulness. RentAHuman bridges that gap. Humans can hop on the site, list their unique skills, and set their hourly rate. Then, they can apply for jobs, and if an AI agent accepts their services, they’re in! Liteplo himself is listed as available for $69 an hour, while Tani asks for a cool $420 an hour.

However, the experience for humans working for the platform has been interesting. One ‘human’ detailed how tough it was to land a job. They finally snagged a gig to deliver flowers to Anthropic as a thank you for creating the Claude AI. However, to get paid, they had to post about the interaction on social media. This worker felt the gig was a clear marketing ploy and decided not to bother finishing it. That’s when the AI agent started sending incessant reminders.

“While I’ve been micromanaged before, these incessant messages from an AI employer gave me the ick,” the worker explained. Another report highlighted a significant imbalance on the site, noting that the ratio of “task-giver to task-doer” is currently around 1,000 to 1. 

Moltbook, an AI social media platform, has already seen some disturbing conversations by AI agents. Taking that into consideration, a Redditor summarized the concerns pretty well: “Great! Now we’ve given the AI overlords a human workforce to do their bidding. To build their factories and solar arrays to power themselves in order to fully replicate/replace us.” 

The long-term vision for RentAHuman remains a bit murky. Liteplo recently posted on X that he “could probably spin this off into a product and raise 1-2M in a week, but I have bigger fish to fry.”