Is Soul AI Legit? Unbelievably High Payouts Raise Suspicions

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Yesterday evening, as I opened LinkedIn to view companies that were actively hiring, I came across several listings from a firm, Soul AI. The job details claimed that I could make up to ₹90,000 a month working 3 hours a day, and that, too, in a remote setup. That got me wondering: Is Soul AI legitimate or are they trying to scam vulnerable job seekers?

Because even established writers don’t make as much money, especially those working for clients within the Indian subcontinent. So, how can a company offering freelance roles in training AI models across languages and other coding tasks pay as much as ₹1,500 an hour?

That’s when I got down to the research part, and within minutes, all my suspicions were confirmed!

What do users have to say about Soul AI?

Naturally, since I was skeptical about Soul AI and its legitimacy, I didn’t submit an application. So, I searched the web for others who had previously applied and there were many. I found countless Reddit posts and even a blog detailing the experience on Medium.

Here’s what one user had to say about his experience with Soul AI on Reddit. He straightaway called Soul AI a scam designed for data scrapping:

_{I applied to Soul and got reply over email in a day to attend their 2 hr training workshop. almost 220 users joined in that workshop. After that they assigned us new tests and i am currently working on them.
My instinct said it might be a scam just do some data scrapping. cause if you assign 5 test questions which are unpaid to 200 people, so they already have 1000 questions of data verified.
The workshop host sounded very unconfident when answering questions regarding project and payouts. I think it’s just a scam to lure people in for freelance project and get some free tests done out from them.}

Another user who had a similar experience shared how he never got any response from the support team.

_{For me I got a non technical assessment, something to analyze and compare between two responses. Took me almost half an hour to complete. It’s gonna be one week and i haven’t heard anything whether I am in the project or not. I even contacted them , no response. Maybe you can also try and let us know. If I get a response, I’ll update here .}

Poor support from Soul AI has been a common complaint. Almost 60% of the reviews mention a lack of dedicated support and affected users never received a response to their queries or concerns.

A Medium post shared by another user who goes by the name TruthfulTales, details the entire experience, right from onboarding to project allocation to, ultimately, dejection.

However, as I was growing too skeptical of Soul AI and was on the verge of calling it a scam, I came across another comment where someone claimed to have received over ₹11,000 (₹800 per hour).

_{INR 800/hr. Did in 2 phases (Project Nebula), got paid somewhat north of 11K. Not much but yeah. Also their communication and management is unprecedentedly dogsgit. Other platforms, if you can crack them are way (no comparison even) better like Outlier, xAI, Alignerr, etc.}

Remember, ₹800 per hour is the payout on the lower side. The recent job postings by Soul AI mention hourly pay as ₹800 – ₹1500. Besides, given how negative reviews far outnumber any positive ones, I don’t trust this comment in its entirety. It could just be a marketing gimmick!

My take on Soul AI after a deep research

After reading the reviews, I had found the answer to my initial question: “Is Soul AI Legit?”

But again, that was only a bunch of reviews. So, I decided to check their official website. It looks pretty shady in my opinion. The kind of benefits they offer are too good to be true!

The next thing that caught my attention was the earnings calculator. It’s by default set to $12/hour and 4 hours/day, which translates into monthly earnings of ₹76,800. But there’s more to it!

The conversion rate between USD and INR is set to 80, which at present hovers around ₹86. So, a higher payout for you. Secondly, for those putting in more time, say 8 hours a day (depending on project availability), the payout will be 2x, i.e., ₹1,53,600.

Third, their listings mention payout in the range of ₹800-₹1500 per hour. That’s $10-$18.75 an hour. Assuming this is the case, anyone with decent experience should average $15 an hour, which translates into a monthly pay of a whopping ₹1,92,000. This is by their own estimates!

This is significantly higher than what an average Indian makes in a month. Even people directly working on AI models don’t earn this much, let alone those involved in training.

I do realize there are other platforms offering similar roles and that there is massive potential in the space. I was recently in touch with one. They were offering ₹300/hour, a more reasonable amount, and wanted me to commit 40 hours/week. That’s more aligned with the market, I believe!

So, the unbelievably high payout, lack of support, and a string of complaints against Soul AI should be good enough reasons to tread with caution. I can’t call it a scam since there isn’t enough evidence at this point, but the information at hand does raise suspicions.

If you were planning to join Soul AI, talk to others who have prior experience with the platform. If possible, ask for proof of payments, the payout frequency, work culture, and other key aspects that are of concern.

Don’t be fooled by claims on LinkedIn or the official website. It’s a cruel world out there, and you must be cautious at every step, especially when it’s a too-good-to-be-true situation!