“Happy 2025. I lost my freelance writing job to AI,” YouTuber Alex Wei titled a video that went viral on New Year’s Day. In the video, he details how a client dumped him in favor of using an AI chatbot to crank out blog posts.
“How can I compete with that?” he asked.
For Wei and millions like him, the path to staying competitive is not at all clear—even for people who know how to use AI to avoid being replaced by AI. And for those who do manage to use AI to stay ahead of the career wrecking ball, it’s getting increasingly costly and difficult to hold onto jobs, especially in the developing world.
OpenAI’s latest “pro” tier subscription costs $200 per month. RunwayML (a leading video generator) charges $95 monthly for its premium features, while the best Midjourney (an AI image generator) tier runs at $120 per month. Just a year ago, OpenAI’s top tier for ChatGPT Plus was priced at around $20, with Runway charging $15 to grant access to its Gen-3 video generator.
While $200 might seem reason…
