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Payal Dhar has reviewed 3 AI writing tools (Jasper, Rytr, and GPT-J) for The Future-Proof Freelancer series and came to a sobering conclusion in an article titled Will AI Writing Tools Replace Us Lowly Human Freelancers?:
“Ultimately, in my opinion, AI is only a threat to writers in the same way that Photoshop ’wiped out’ artists and Squarespace did away with web developers. I don’t think that we lowly human freelancers are going to be replaced by robots—but some of us might take one on as an assistant in the not-too-distant future.”
“For a freelancer, a photo is a bit like a logo for a company. You can get by without a logo, but without a photo? Not so much. Your photo represents you and says who you are and how you see yourself, it’s a clear output of a certain amount of self-styling, and it’s an expression of how you want others to see you.”
Learn more about the basics of freelance marketing and picking the best headshot photo in The Freelance Way.
There is DALL·E 2 AI image generator, already available to beta testers — and then there’s Imagen by Google Research’s Brain Team, the quality of which is just brutal.
Our take: If you look at the sample high-resolution images generated by Imagen’s AI from short text descriptions, it’s quite obvious that many designers, illustrators, and photographers are getting concerned about their professional future. Google is probably concerned too, intending to keep Imagen technology private, at least for now:
An online event Freelance Business Creativity produced by Elina Jutelyte and her team is scheduled for June 30, 2022. It is free to join for all free-lancers.
Here’s our movie tip for the weekend: The Intern with Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway is a great business comedy/drama about a retired widower who, basically, decides to go freelance as an intern in a startup company. Rated 7.1/10 on IMDb.
In freelancing, a “good name” is generally understood as an established association of quality between the professional as a person and their area of expertise. But there are many other ways to phrase it. Such as:
Read more about building your reputation as a freelancer in The Freelance Way.
Freelancer’s price is, among other things, a message about their level of expertise and work experience. The question is: What that message is, if their price hasn’t moved for years? Here’s a relevant quote from The Freelance Way, chapter Pricing:
A price is a message. If you are working with your price correctly, it’s boosting the image that you are also trying to build through your other marketing tools or channels. Or otherwise. If you keep the price that you had a few years ago when you were starting out, what does that say about you? That you are still the same beginner for eternity with no faith in yourself, who makes mistakes, and whose price reflects low quality and professionalism? Because that is how the customer sees it.
Elina Jutelyte is an event manager and freelance angel: As an expat, she founded the Belgian Freelance Business Community and produces large events for European freelancers. In this talk for Freelance Friends, Elina shares her own freelance origins story and lessons learned:
If you’re a freelance illustrator or microstock photographer, the new DALL·E 2 AI image generator is a huge game-changer.
As shown in a recent product demo, Dalle2 can generate high-quality illustrations and generic photorealistic images (in countless variations) from simple text descriptions.
Our take: Instead of replacing humans, Dalle’s AI may enable creators to produce more quality work and focus on creative idea-making, rather than laboriously processing those very ideas. AI power tools like these may be quite common in future creator’s toolkit.
Spec work is when an inexperienced freelancer is manipulated into doing some work for free or with a vague vision of a reward, reciprocal service, or other work. Here are some examples from The Freelance Way, chapter Business Negotiations: