OpenAI is the company responsible for the creation of the immensely popular AI chatbot known as ChatGPT. But recently it was uncovered that OpenAI pays its US contract workers a meager $15 per hour to handle important tasks such as data labeling. Data labeling is a vital process that machines use to learn to identify certain items in any given dataset, ultimately improving the responsiveness of automated systems to user requests.
Though the significance of labeling within the field of AI is undeniable, the people performing the job are not given due compensation for it. As Alexej Savreux, a laborer based in Kansas City, points out in an interview with NBC News, “We are grunt workers, but there would be no AI language systems without it.” Considering the minimum wage in Kansas City is set at $7.25, it is an obvious injustice.
To make matters worse, earlier OpenAI was also found to be outsourcing its moderation tasks to African contractors, paying them as low as $2 per hour. This was extremely ethically questionable as these contractors had to read and filter through distressing material such as descriptions of sexual violence, murder and other forms of torture. However, the company has since ceased its practice and now opts for US-based laborers.
It is important to acknowledge that humans are behind much of the work that goes into training artificial intelligence. Such grueling data-labeling jobs should be given proper pay and consideration, which OpenAI has failed to provide. The company’s exploitation of low-wage workers, both in Africa and in the US, is also incredibly unethical. Although receiving relatively little attention, this issue needs to be addressed and taken seriously.
The company OpenAI was founded in late 2015 by some of the most well-known names in the field of artificial intelligence, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. It is driven by the idea of a general artificial intelligence, which is described as “a single algorithm which can be applied to any problem automatically”. The company’s research primarily focuses on deep learning and machine learning.
On the other hand, Alexej Savreux is a laborer based in Kansas City, Missouri. In an article published by NBC News, he expressed his concern over the inadequate pay received by those involved in the data labeling process and highlighted the significance of the task. Another such worker, Virginia Sharp, emphasized that contractors should be paid decently for their labor.
