Frontier Programs · 22 October 2026
Introducing Creative Advisors
A paid, part-time role inside the Human Frontier Collective for leading creative practitioners — architects, designers, animators and the studios around them.
By Human Frontier Collective at Scale
AI can generate a logo in seconds. Give it a real client project, and it mostly falls short.
People who do this work for a living know why. A set of architectural drawings has to agree with itself from every angle. A brand identity has to hold together across dozens of touchpoints. Good creative work runs on judgment that builds up over years and rarely gets written down.
That judgment is what AI models are missing, and we think the people who have it should help shape how models learn it. Today we’re opening the Creative Advisor role for leading creative practitioners.
What AI still can’t do
In October 2025, Scale and the Center for AI Safety released the Remote Labor Index, a benchmark of real, paid freelance projects — each with the original brief, the input files and the deliverable the client actually accepted.
- 240
- Projects
- Filtered from 550 submissions by 358 verified Upwork freelancers
- 28.9h
- Mean completion time
- Hours of professional work per project. The median is 11.5
- $144K
- Total value
- $143,991 of genuine economic transactions across the benchmark
The best agent on the leaderboard today completes about 1 in 5 of these projects to a client-ready standard. When RLI launched, the best managed 2.5%.
21.25% automation rate · Opus 5.5 · October 2026
Where AI falls short
Progress is real, but most of the work is still out of reach. Across evaluated deliverables, failures cluster into four categories.
- 45.6%
- Poor quality
- Complete deliverables that fall below professional standards — amateur work in images, code and 3D models.
- 35.7%
- Incomplete deliverables
- Missing components, truncated videos, absent source assets.
- 17.6%
- Corrupted or unusable files
- Corrupt or empty files, or work delivered in unusable formats.
- 14.8%
- Inconsistencies
- Visual or logical drift between files — a house’s design changing between 3D views.
No automated system could grade this work, either. Every deliverable was reviewed by trained experts — because “is this architectural plan correct?” takes someone who knows the field.
Most of this work is creative
RLI spans 23 categories of freelance work. The seven largest are all creative disciplines, and together they account for 69% of the benchmark.
- Video
- 13%
- CAD
- 12%
- Graphic design
- 11%
- Game development
- 10%
- Audio
- 10%
- Architecture
- 7%
- Product design
- 6%
What a Creative Advisor does
Advisors bring their practice into direct collaboration with Scale’s research and ML teams. The focus is on new work: we commission briefs, you make the work, and you help decide what “good” looks like in your field.
Create alongside the team
Take on paid, commissioned briefs and develop new work that challenges what models are capable of doing.
Shape work in your domain
Share the judgment, methods and creative decisions behind your practice to help inform model development.
Partner with ML and research teams
Review model outputs, flag where AI falls short, and give feedback that shapes how models learn your craft.
Connect with other creators
Meet and learn from creatives and researchers across HFC and your industry, and bring in peers if you’d like.
Two ways to work with us
Many creators do both. You can start with either one.
Advise as a Creative Advisor
Make new work through commissioned briefs, join calls and give written reviews of model outputs, and help decide what great work looks like in your field.
License your past work
Sell selected finished projects from your archive, with the brief, inputs and source files, priced per project. Work must be original and yours to sell, not AI-generated, stock or templates. See how it works →
Who we’re looking for
Leading creators in their field who are interested in shaping AI and how it’s changing creative work. No AI experience needed. Your expertise in your craft matters most, and being connected to others in your field is a plus.
- Architecture & interiors
- Industrial & product design
- Graphic design
- 3D modeling & CAD
- Animation & motion
- Video production
- Web & interactive
- Game development
How to apply
- 1
Apply. Share your background and a link to your portfolio. Reviewed on a rolling basis.
- 2
Portfolio review. Share one past project you’re proud of. Review is free, and nothing is used without a signed agreement and payment.
- 3
Meet the team. A paid conversation with our research and ML team to walk through your work.
- 4
Get started. Successful candidates join the Human Frontier Collective as a Creative Advisor.
Become a Creative Advisor
Paid, part-time and flexible. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
Apply nowFurther reading
Remote Labor Index — Measuring AI Automation of Remote Work · Leaderboard