Internships are not free labour
Saw a job post earlier for an “AI Forensics / Deepfake Detection Intern” that honestly rubbed me the wrong way.
They wanted:
- MSc preferred
- Strong Python skills
- pandas/numpy
- writing automation scripts
- handling AI training datasets
- 25+ hours a week
- 6 month commitment
- working alongside PhD researchers on production systems
Pay: unpaid.
Not even minimum wage. Just “you’ll get experience and portfolio work”.
Maybe I’m out of touch, but if someone’s work is actively helping build your product, that’s not really an internship anymore. That’s just labour.
The post even said the quality of their AI models depends on the intern’s work. So clearly the role matters.
Feels like junior devs/data people are being asked for more and more every year:
degree, projects, certs, internships, GitHub, interview prep… and now apparently six months of unpaid skilled work too.
I get startups are tight on money, but asking MSc students to commit half a year unpaid doesn’t sit right with me at all.