Mother of two makes most of high-tech opportunity

A job advertisement offering free training for "autonomous driving annotation" and "flexible working hours" encouraged Ma Lei to return to the workforce in Gansu province's Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar autonomous county three years ago.

Now, in the wake of the 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck the area last month, the director of the county's AIdol Plan Digital Industrial Park, Tian Xiao, is busy trying to recruit more than 50 data annotation workers in Jishishan to help people in the area support themselves.

The mother of two boys, Ma previously quit working to take care of her children and family, a common choice for many women in China's rural counties and towns.

"We still hold traditional views, believing that women should take more responsibility for the family," she said. "Both husband and wife cannot be busy at the same time. Who will take care of the family? I took care of my two children till kindergarten by myself. After each kid was born, I would quit my job and focus on taking care of them."

However, she longed for work. Before joining the digital industry park, she was a nurse.

"But nursing requires night shifts, and the timing isn't always desirable," she said. "Sometimes, when the children finished school and looked for their mother, I wasn't at home, and I knew they would be sad. Sometimes, after finishing a night shift, I was too tired to handle breakfast. So, after two years, it was difficult to continue."

Many of Ma's friends resigned and became housewives, a common occurrence in the county, which is home to many people who are members of three of China's smaller ethnic groups. Most married early, like Ma, a member of the Dongxiang ethnic group who is in her early 30s. Her eldest son is already in junior high school.

The most appealing thing about being a data annotation specialist for Ma is that it frees her from having to follow a strict timetable.

Her main job is to review the information identified by artificial intelligence, correct any misidentified information, and supplement missing information, which helps improve the accuracy of AI.

Yan Peng, a software development engineer in Beijing, said: "For example, the AI system for autonomous driving is already quite mature, but its accuracy still needs to be improved through training by AI trainers. Sometimes, the system may not accurately recognize a pedestrian with an unusual posture, but through repeated annotation, the recognition ability can be enhanced."

On average, Ma needs to work more than six hours a day, six days a week, but she can choose her own times, allowing her to have dinner with her children after work and help them with their homework.

In her first month as a data annotator, Ma made just 4.5 yuan, but she's now earning about 4,000 yuan ($560) a month, 50 percent more than when she was a nurse.

"The first time I used these complex computer systems, I found it very difficult," she said. "I had to work hard to learn during training, but my efficiency was low during practice. So, the salary for the first few months was almost negligible. However, the trainers said that this work was related to AI.

"Although I didn't understand AI, I believed it had great prospects, so I wanted to persist and give it a try."

She's proud to be a mother with the ability to balance family care and a professional career.

"I asked my younger son what he wants to do in the future, and he said he wants to become an AI trainer like me," Ma said.

In the office next to Ma's, Wang Juan also speaks with pride about her work. She is an Alipay customer service representative and trains the customer service team.

"In the past, I thought that after graduating from university, I could only use what I learned by working in big cities," she said. "If I returned to my hometown, I would probably only be able to work in a supermarket or clothing store, or a restaurant."

Wang never expected she would be able to become a white-collar worker, working regular hours, enjoying daily activities such as drinking coffee in the office and exercising on sports equipment during her lunch break. She has trained over 400 people to lead similar lives.

Lu Penghui, Jishishan's deputy county head, said over 70 percent of the employees in the industrial park are women, with over half being members of smaller ethnic groups.

Lu serves as the liaison person for the National Healthcare Security Administration's targeted assistance to Jishishan to prevent the county from slipping back into poverty. During his two years in Jishishan, he has seen the number of people employed at the industrial park grow from a handful to over 300.

He said that large food delivery platforms like Ele.me require health certificate verification for their delivery personnel, well-known electric vehicle companies like Xiaopeng and Li Auto need autonomous driving annotation services, and Alipay provides cloud customer service.

Many such high-tech services in bigger Chinese cities have their roots in county seats like Jishishan, bringing employment opportunities to local people and changing their lives.