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This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sultan Ali, a 25-year-old AI content editor based in the city of Bahawalpur in Pakistan, about how he makes ChatGPT-generated text sound more human. Insider verified his earnings through screenshots of his earnings and his client work through PDFs of the articles he edited. This story has been edited for length and clarity.
I started using OpenAI's ChatGPT to help with my classwork. Now I make thousands of dollars editing AI-generated text so nobody could tell a machine made it.
My journey into AI content editing began a little after ChatGPT came out. I was months away from completing my MBA, and during the school year, I turned to the AI chatbot for assistance with my assignments. As a result, I received high marks in two of my classes, which made me realize the potential of how useful AI can be.
Interested in writing, I decided to offer AI content editing services through the freelance gig platform Fiverr. Since receiving my first order in March 2023, I've completed more than 150 assignments from clients across the US and Europe.
The projects I edit include academic essays, business reports, blogs, and product descriptions — all generated by ChatGPT. The goal is to make these AI-generated texts sound like it was written by a human.
Here's how it works. First, I read the AI-generated text closely to figure out what it's trying to say. Since clients give me texts related to topics like philosophy, medicine, and engineering that I'm often unfamiliar with, I need to make sure I understand the subject matter enough so I can edit the content effectively.
After that, I put the text through Grammarly, an writing software, to correct all the grammatical errors. Once that's done, I manually go through the text line-by-line to make each sentence sound more human. To do so, I add three to four descriptive words to each line.
For instance, I would edit the AI-generated sentence "I live in a house that is located on Street 30" to "I live in a beautiful house that's located near the fountain on Street 30." I also like to add humor to make the text sound less boring. This process takes a minimum of two hours.
After adding the words, I go through the entire piece again to delete lines and continuously run it through Grammarly. If the assignment includes citations, I make sure each one is actually real.
Once the text is polished, I run it through programs like Turnitin to check for plagiarism, GPTZero to ensure it doesn't sound AI-generated, and Originality.ai to identify factual errors. If the text doesn't pass these tests, I go back and continue to edit. If it does, I send the edited version of the text — including the Grammarly and AI-detection reports — to my client for review, adjusting the text until they're satisfied.
1) Do your research: Make sure you read the original studies and articles required for the assignment so you know what ChatGPT is talking about. The AI can be wrong.
2) Check the citations: ChatGPT can create fake references. Make sure they're legit.
3) Add a few words to change the scene: That way, the text is more interesting.
4) Try to write manually: Ideally, you should only rely on ChatGPT if you're short on time.
Most of my clients are students who need to complete their class assignments under time constraints. However, I do have professionals come to me with bigger, longer-term projects.
One was a guy who asked me to edit a series of AI-generated e-books on child psychology. Another was a fitness instructor who gave me between 50 to 60 articles to edit for his website.
The biggest project I've worked on was with a startup that gave me a 50,000-word aviation instructional manual to rewrite. It took six months to complete.
Still, the job comes with its challenges.
Sometimes, I don't understand what the AI text is trying to say. Other times, clients will ask me to complete assignments in 8 to 12 hours that just aren't feasible within that time frame. There have even been incidents where clients were disappointed by the final product. One client got mad at me for rewriting his text in British English when he wanted it to be American.
So far, I've made more than $3,500 from my AI content editing services through Fiverr.
My rates start at $5 per assignment and increase based on the number of words and delivery time. Still, I only do this part-time as I hunt for a full-time job.
Nevertheless, I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. Artificial intelligence is still new, and the demand for AI content editors will only continue to grow, especially among lazy or busy people.
I think the demand for my services will last for at least another six to seven years.
