OpenAI fires contractors for using AI to train its models, report says

The report, based on internal documents and interviews with three anonymous contractors, says the contractor pool may exceed ten thousand people. Two of the sources confirmed that individuals were fired or off‑boarded for violating the no‑AI rule. A spokesperson for Mercor, the staffing firm that supplies many of these reviewers, said the company “immediately removes” experts when AI use is detected. OpenAI declined to comment on the alleged terminations. The article also notes concerns about “model collapse,” where models trained on AI‑generated text degrade over time, underscoring why the policy is enforced.