OpenAI Fires Contractors for Using AI to Train Its Models
Multiple data annotators were terminated for deploying AI themselves while hired to provide human oversight, risking model degradation.
What to know
- OpenAI has fired multiple contractors from its 10,000+ workforce for using AI tools while annotating training data, despite being hired to provide human oversight.
- Internal documents show OpenAI explicitly prohibits contractors from using AI, including Grammarly and AI detection tools, while reviewing work.
- The practice risks exacerbating 'model collapse'—degradation caused by training AI models on AI-generated text—undermining the stated purpose of human annotation.
- The situation highlights a contradiction: OpenAI promotes AI use in workplaces while firing its own contractors for the same behavior.
“Some AI models already exhibit signs of 'model collapse,' which is where AI models further trained on AI-generated text can become worse and worse.”
404 Media, Publication · 404 Media ↗
OpenAI AI company employing contractors404 Media Investigative publication
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts
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Project Lily reveals OpenAI contractors review ChatGPT users' personal data
404 Media's previous reporting exposed that OpenAI employs hundreds of contractors to read real ChatGPT user prompts and conversations—some containing personal information—to rate and refine responses as part of Project Lily.
“all the time and people are let go for it all the time, it's pretty much the one thing that will get you kicked off ASAP…”
— Anonymous OpenAI contractor, Data annotator · source -
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404 Media has found multiple contractors hired to improve OpenAI’s models have been fired for using AI to train the AI. @evystadium.bsky.social has more. Read the story by @josephcox.bsky.social here:
2 more of the top 3 · 23 posts in this stretch
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"OpenAI has an army of contractors who read real ChatGPT users’ prompts and other data to help improve the chatbot’s responses. The idea is that the contractors provide an, obviously, human touch to OpenAI’s models. Well, not all of the contractors are doing that. 404 Media has found multiple contractors hired to improve OpenAI’s models have been…
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There's data in verifiable domains where a model can learn through the environment (e.g., math or coding), but some data is necessarily human experience. For instance, "what is the best ice cream in Malaga?" no matter how capable current AIs are they are not capable to get this information, there's no embodiment or simulation of human experience…
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background
Internal OpenAI documents prohibit contractors from using AI tools — Obtained documents show OpenAI explicitly forbade contractors from using AI detection tools, Grammarly, AI translation, or other AI systems while reviewing work, with instructions not to reveal detection methods to evaluators.
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background
404 Media reports OpenAI contractors fired for using AI in annotation work — 404 Media obtained internal documents and interviewed three contractors, finding that multiple people hired to review and improve ChatGPT's responses were terminated for using AI tools themselves while performing their work.
Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
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first by HN Frontpage, 1d ago · also Tom's Guide, 404 Media
1 more headline
What people are saying 18 voices from 3 sites · best of 23 · verbatim
- Yesterday
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I did this type of work for a while when I was between jobs earlier this year. Using Ai to write the evaluations was immediate criteria for being removed from the project. Seems obvious
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Ki trainiert mit Ki, und zur Korrektur wieder KI. Was soll da raus kommen? https://www. 404media.co/people-training-op enais-ai-fired-for-using-ai-to-train-the-ai/ # ki # ai # training
- Sep 22
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RE: https:// toot.majorshouse.com/@majorlin ux/117317782885211925 People being fired for using AI to fire the people fired for using AI to train the AI in 3… 2…
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https://www. 404media.co/people-training-op enais-ai-fired-for-using-ai-to-train-the-ai/ How does this make any sense?
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2026 summarized in a headline… People Training OpenAI’s AI Fired for Using AI to Train the AI https://www. 404media.co/people-training-op enais-ai-fired-for-using-ai-to-train-the-ai/ # AI # ArtificialIntelligence # AISlop # BigTech # enshittification
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the real proof that companies use AI to break labor power, not because it can actually replace human work: OpenAI hires entire humans to prevent other humans from using AI to train the AI, and those humans can get fired for using AI to stop the other humans from using AI
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We literally just published this about OpenAI today: Humans are training ChatGPT by reading users' prompts -- which yes, can contain sensitive info. They're also getting fired for using AI to train the AI.
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So by using AI to label datasets, the data used to train the AI was generated by AI… and we arrive at the title of the article
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Why exactly it is clickbaity? It makes perfect sense to me, I understand title as: people told not use AI fired for using AI - without any need for additional context. Mechanical Turk was shut down for exactly same reason, it was always a race to the bottom and using LLMs was cheaper than even third world gig workers. Verifying if task were done…
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> they fired contractors for using AI to label dataIs your objection to the word “train” in headline? Otherwise, you’re just restating the headline while calling it clickbait (which, btw, it’s not, perhaps you meant to say it is misleading, which is a different thing.)
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It's not a clickbait title? Click bait has a very different meaning. The click bait title would be something like, "Open AI mysteriously fired these workers, find out why"This title says why. The article then goes on to explain why that's a problem. Pretty straightforward.
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Clickbait title, they fired contractors for using AI to label data, which defeats the purpose of labeling data in this case.
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Typically, for AI training, you need human feedback. If AI were enough, then OpenAI would do it themselves. Though we all know how bad AI slop is, running it in a loop can lead to unreadable sentences.They hired contractors on the condition that they provide human feedback without AI; those people broke the rules, so their contracts ended…
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Makes sense, they are buying distillation of human brains not their own weights.
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Bubble bursting behavior in action - AI company that pushes everyone to use AI, replace everything and everyone with AI, fires people for using AI to make the AI.The more you think about it, the worse it gets.
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Den Preis, wie oft "AI" in eine Headline geht, hat definitiv 404 media gewonnen :) News für dich, @ gavinkarlmeier ?! # AI # KI # OpenAI https://www. 404media.co/people-training-op enais-ai-fired-for-using-ai-to-train-the-ai/
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OpenAI has thousands and thousands of contractors helping improve the company's AI models. Multiple contractors have been fired for using AI to train the AI.
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New: OpenAI has thousands of contractors improving its AI, including reading ChatGPT users' prompts We've found many of those contractors have been fired for themselves using AI to train the AI. People using AI "all the time and people are let go for it all the time"