So I posted a job ....this happened.

[#1]

So I'm pretty scared of what has become of Upwork.

I created a job and 5-6 proposals from the same guy.....
Another job I get 40 proposals in 10 min. Flooded with unqalified freshly created profiles. 

Another one with AI generated image of a fake person.

AI generated proposals letters. it's clear they just batch them out in huge quantaties like a factory.

Where is this going Upwork? How far will this go?

Am I going crazy or is this happening to anyone else?

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[#2]

When their very existence is totally dependent on one thing, and a fairly recent change, too, you are never going to get them to see or accept reality. It's just ad after ad after ad. I am the professional and everyone else is a no talent hack. The complete lack of respect, refusal to look at or respond to logic, the refusal to acknowledge the very real and significant legal issues, lack of copyright, etc. and constant attacks on freelancers, telling clients not to hire them unless they have his approval, i.e. a certain level of money on this platform is demented.

Most of us are here to help others, not convince clients that they shouldn't hire them. It's fine to have differing opinions, debate and be passionate about your beliefs, but purposely telling clients to ignore freelancers due to some arbitrary monetary figure is a terrible thing to do to others, and negates any bluster about helping anyone.

The people I work with respect previous work, and do not want to become embroiled in a legal hassle over ownership, etc. Real AI is amazing, and has great potential to improve many areas of life, such as desalination, ways to collect water, and irrigation methods, ways to study the far-reaching cosmos, and in the medical realm, where it can aid surgeons doing the most sensitive of surgeries.

Real AI is not the chatbots. It's time people started to think for themselves, read, and learn. Don't take my word for it, or anyone else. It's every freelancer's rear end on the line, and they better learn what's happening with the law and the negative blow back from using programs that steal. None of the bots can think or create. They are predictive programs based on the work of other people. No one should assume someone knows what they are talking about in this important area. If you care about your career, your future, being able to claim the right to work, you need to learn before you find out the "expert" is wrong.

[#3]

"Chat GPT writes like a **Edited for Community Guidelines** teenager..."

Best description of this garbage tool ever, thanks for the laugh!

[#4]

I see the same thing as your code example in writing. Someone will say "AI wrote this piece and it only took an hour and a half to edit," and the end piece is virtually always something that could have been written from scratch in that same amount of time or less, but with better results. 

That probably won't always be true, but today most of the "writing" I see coming out of it would be C work for an 8th grader.

[#5]

Excellent, I'm so glad to see someone who can think objectively. No, the chatbots that people adore are not AI. I have even posted definitions, but the respondents apparently can't or won't read.

Real AI can be amazing. I've tried to explain, but some are so locked into the marketing, they have abandoned logic. When I work with experts in their field, and we are discussing the use of AI, much closer to AI than most people here have even imagined, you don't just start typing and stealing. Since AI is built on previous works, in professional fields, it must be established who owns what, and how can it be used. There is no, just start typing and steal from others. Of course theft happens in any field, but is not common amongst professionals who respect and honor the law, ethics, and don't want any problems with theft.

[#6]

When you say "the experts," do you mean the consultants like you, or do you mean the defendants in the many copyright infringement lawsuits currently pending?

[#7]

Tiffany,

Please feel free to ignore my posts since your remarks toward me appear to be nonconstructive, acerbic, an attempt at leveling, and off topic.

[#8]

We do need an 'ignore this person' button indeed.

[#9]

And if I need to respond to that argument.

I don't see it as 'nonconstructive' when it questions false claims that are posted repeatedly, sometimes with personal attacks as well. Adressing someone else's property instead of their argument, IS already personal attack. Mods doesn't seem to understand this, they may delete this post if they want.

[#10]

For example, scheduling by calendar an apppointment for a client and a freelancer to meet. Why should people waste their time with that time of task?

Because they want to talk with the client and decide what works best, not when the chatbots see an opening.

Schools that have data science, machine learning, deep learning, software engineering, math, and many other degrees would expect their students to use the available AI tools or graduate with a worthless degree.

That is a sweeping statement, that is not true as written.

Microsoft Copolit becomes available this November thereby making these types of tools the norm for enterprise employees that want to stay employed.

Such grandiose, over-the-top generalizations.

What would someone have to do to get you to respond to the very real legal issues confronting users of ChatGPT, Jasper, etc.?

Since you changed careers, you refuse to accept the facts of usage of the chatbot programs. You may be willing, to risk it all, but it is wrong to encourage people to blindly use products that have enormous legal and copyright issues, and outstanding court cases pending. I don't care if Upwork promotes it or not. Upwork is not taking any risk, at all. The stuff that hits the fan will smack the freelancers, and clients, but won't concern Upwork, because it's the freelancers and clients without legal standing.

I have heard experts and professionals speak about the legal and ethical repercussions. It's unfortunate we do not have an expert on Upwork who can do the same.

[#11]

And here we are hardworking humans with work history in Upwork having a hard time trying to land jobs. 🤔

[#12]

Don't know what is going on with Upwork. Maybe that's why clients stop checking their job post because their post get flooded with these ai generated or non professional freelancers at start. I've been noticing most of the jobs I bid on stay open for weeks without clients even checking their post again.

About the proposal from same person you should report it to upwork as it's not allowed for freelancers to have more than one profile.

Upwork itself is encouraging freelancers to use AI in their proposals but I think it's of no use.

[#13]

Boris, thanks for sharing your experience. Upwork is no longer what it used to be, no wonder clients run away and never come back if those are the proposals they get. The management ruined everything, transforming a golden platform into manure.

[#14]

Good for everything and every one 

[#15]

Upwork should stop giving out any free connects. No free connects for signing up, and no free monthly connects. The freebies don't really help honest freelancers anyway, they only incentivise the dishonest ones to sign up for multiple accounts. 

[#16]

Well said.

[#17]

This is one of the major issues with Upwork now. Real Freelancers are just suffering from this. Upwork should look into this matter as Upwork is the main source of earning for many people.

[#18]

No, Upwork has to solve those issues not in order to help freelancers, but rather to help itself! 

[#19]

Hello Boris,

Regarding the first point, a freelancer can only apply for a job once. If he applies several times, he has more than two account types that allow to apply for a job (freelancer and agency), which is against the Upwork User Agreement. You can click on her name to visualize her profile and then click on the three dots in the upper right corner and select Flag as inappropriate, this will take you 10 seconds, and you will contribute to making Upwork a more reliable platform.

[#20]

##- why nobody accept my proposals. Please give one project at least I will
show my work quality. ##

[#21]

Don't spam this thread with your work requests.

[#22]

Boris,

Report to Support. It may be a freelancer has misused an API.

[#23]

Ok.. hear me out. Just Maybe... The guy applying really really wants to work for @Boris and is perfectly qualified! 

Just Kidding 😂... its almost definitely a nefarious bad actor misusing an API or gaming the system, either way there should be zero tolerance for users of UpWork to have such low ethics & morality. Just report, block & carry on with a positive attitude! 👍

If something or someone can make you angry, emotional or elicits a reaction from you.. it can control you.

[#24]

Boris, 

Upwork definitely raised the bar on both freelancer & client's side.

At the time being, clients must put more effort in vetting freelancers that applied to a job post, as the perfect match for your needs might be right at the bottom of the list.
Or might not even be there at all. I bet this same job post of yours let's say, 1 year ago, would have recieved many more real and valuable proposals. We (freelancers) are still here. We're just becoming more and more selective when it comes to applying to jobs.

Your experience perfectly recasts the scenario I imagine  any client would see when posting a job. 

[#25]

I had something simliar happen.  Job posted, and in under 20 minutes, multiple proposals using AI generated responses.  When scheduling a meeting to discuss the proposal, the contractors never matched who we were talking to (wrong location, education, skillset, and even pictures).

This really makes Upwork, as a platform, unusable for finding skilled contractors.  

[#26]

Same, seems I became laggy here because of this ?