OpenAI has hundreds of contract workers reading your ChatGPT conversations
404 Media investigation reveals OpenAI pays hundreds of contract workers to read anonymized ChatGPT conversations, with disclosure buried in an FAQ.
A 404 Media investigation found OpenAI uses hundreds of contract workers, recruited via Crossing Hurdles and paid over $50/hour through Mercor, to rate real ChatGPT conversations on a seven-point scale to reduce sycophancy. Prompts are anonymized but can still contain sensitive personal data despite a privacy filter OpenAI admits can make mistakes. Users can opt out only via the default-enabled 'Improve the model for everyone' setting, which applies solely to new chats. Anthropic and Google confirmed similar human-review programs for Claude and Gemini.
- Hundreds of contract workers rate real ChatGPT conversations to reduce flattery and human-like behavior
- Anonymized prompts can still contain sensitive personal data despite imperfect privacy filters
- 'Improve the model for everyone' is default-on; opt-out only affects new conversations
- Anthropic and Google also use human reviewers for Claude and Gemini chats
From the original article
2 min read at the-decoder.com
OpenAI has hundreds of contract workers reading real ChatGPT conversations and rating them on a scale of one to seven, partly to reduce flattery and human-like behavior, 404 Media reports. The prompts are anonymized but can still contain sensitive data. Users who don't want their chats reviewed by humans have to actively disable the "Improve the model for everyone" setting, which is on by default.
By Matthias Bastian · the-decoder.com
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