"According to a new study conducted by Scale AI and the Center for AI Safety, the most cutting-edge AI agents are currently only able to automate less than 3% of the tasks required from the average independent contractor, "failing to complete most projects at a level that would be accepted as commissioned work in a realistic freelancing environment," the authors wrote."
"The study, posted to the preprint server arXiv on Thursday and yet to be peer-reviewed, establishes a testing benchmark for AI systems, which it calls the Remote Labor Index (RLI). The benchmark serves as a qualitative framework for measuring the ability of AI systems to perform economically valuable work at a time when some tech leaders have been making sweeping claims about the disruptive impact AI will have on the labor market."
"As the name suggests, the RLI is specifically designed to assess AI's potential to automate remote, freelance work. As anyone who has ever spent a stint as a freelancer can attest, this is a mode of work that requires a high degree of self-sufficiency and organization, among other skills. It has also become quite popular: A recent survey found that just shy of 73 million Americans performed freelance work in 2025, representing nearly 43% of the total US workforce as of August."
Research from Scale AI and the Center for AI Safety finds cutting-edge AI agents can automate under 3% of tasks performed by independent contractors and fail to complete most projects at acceptable freelance standards. The Remote Labor Index (RLI) establishes a qualitative benchmark to evaluate AI systems’ ability to perform economically valuable remote freelance work. The RLI targets self-sufficient, organized freelance tasks and tests major models such as Gemini 2.5 Pro and GPT-5. Remote freelancing remained large in 2025, with roughly 73 million Americans freelancing, about 43% of the workforce.
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