While artificial intelligence threatens a myriad of job positions, it’s simultaneously created new ones — some with exuberantly generous salaries.
In July, Netflix posted a job listing for a product manager on its Machine Learning Platform (MLP). The starting salary ranges from $300,000 to $900,000. The role, which is still open, intends to “increase the leverage” of Netflix’s machine learning program.
The product manager role will involve utilizing AI across all aspects of Netflix’s business, including content acquisition and personalizing user recommendations.
Separately, Netflix is also hiring a technical director in its Game Studio, focusing on AI/ML technology. The starting salary is $650,000.
The role comes amid the nearly three-month-long writers’ strike as artists and performers vie for increased wages and residuals from streaming giants, along with more AI regulation in the writers’ room. Earlier this month, the Screen Actors Guild also went on strike with similar concerns. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national executive director and chief negotiator of the actors union SAG-AFTRA, called the emergence of AI an “existential threat” to actors’ livelihoods, Business Insider reported.
The strikers are fighting for regulation around the use of AI for creation, saying it should only be a tool to supplement ideas, but not a means to replace writers. While not all streaming services have taken an official stance on AI, HBO CEO Casey Bloys has spoken out against it. “The idea that AI would be involved in any sort of development or the creative process in the kinds of shows that I do, or we do, at HBO, that’s not something I want to be a part of,” Bloys told Variety in June.
Meanwhile, in other fields, experience with AI has become an increasingly sought-after skill, with some companies shelling out base salaries well into six figures for the job. In April, a report by ResumeBuilder, which surveyed 1,187 business leaders in the U.S., found that 91% of leaders who were hiring were looking for workers with ChatGPT experience.
Related: We Will Inevitably Lose Skills to AI, But Do The Benefits Outweigh The Risks?
The survey also found that one in four employers said the starting salary for AI “prompt engineers” will exceed $200,000, and 17% said it will exceed $300,000.
“The internet is now populated with plenty of tutorials to build ChatGPT skills,” said chief career advisor at ResumeBuilder, Stacie Haller, in the report. “Those who take advantage of learning this new technology will pull ahead of other candidates.”
Related: Report: AI Will Take More Jobs Away from Women Than Men
