Silicon Valley venture capitalists (Thiel, Andreessen) orchestrated cuts to federal science funding while positioning portfolio companies like Mercor and ScaleAI to profit from the resulting displacement of STEM researchers. Highly credentialed researchers now perform gig work annotating AI training data for $30/hour.
Strategy
How Silicon Valley Is Turning Scientists into Exploited Gig Workers
Venture capitalists including Thiel and Andreessen orchestrated federal science funding cuts while positioning portfolio companies Mercor and ScaleAI to profit from displaced PhDs annotating AI training data at $30/hour.
Friday, April 17, 2026 12:00 PM UTC2 MIN READSOURCE: Hacker NewsBY sys://pipeline
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