An Anthropic project is using feedback from about 1,000 human software engineers to improve the performance of Claude Code, the AI coding tool whose recent advancements have disrupted the vibe-coding industry.The project, known internally at Snorkel AI as "Marlin," focuses on fine-tuning Claude Code's answers so that it could mimic what a professional developer could do.AI companies like Anthropic often outsource data work to third parties like Snorkel, which hire contractors to teach AI a variety of specialist subjects and do other tasks to improve models.
Contractor interviews and training material from these projects provide a look into how this unseen army operates across the world.Two contractors working on the Anthropic project told Business Insider they are being paid $280 per task to create prompts and review code.
They said each task takes about an hour, although some submissions needed more back-and-forth with Snorkel's approval layer.Project Marlin's freelancers, who have software engineering backgrounds, were directed to A/B test code written by two different models.
Through this process, they compared the outputs from two models and chose which they preferred, according to project guidelines from Snorkel reviewed by Business Insider.
One contractor said that the project aimed to ensure the model could achieve the level of detail expected in the prompt, essentially training Claude Code to write simplified, easier-to-maintain code.The project is ongoing.
The contractors did not know what version of the models they were evaluating.As AI gets smarter and more capable, data-labeling platforms have shifted from generalist work to increasingly specialized tasks that require field expertise or postgraduate degrees.
Snorkel's website says that it works with people with advanced degrees, such as Ph.Ds, MDs, and JDs, or equivalent experience.
The company says that top experts earn over $3,000 a week.The industry's transition to this specialization includes software training by computer....
