{"version":1,"type":"story","url":"https://digestai.news/story/openai-hires-humans-to-review-chatgpt-prompts","json":"https://digestai.news/story/openai-hires-humans-to-review-chatgpt-prompts.json","markdown":"https://digestai.news/story/openai-hires-humans-to-review-chatgpt-prompts.md","slug":"openai-hires-humans-to-review-chatgpt-prompts","headline":"OpenAI uses hundreds of contractors to review ChatGPT chats","summary":"A 404 Media investigation reveals that OpenAI employs hundreds of contract workers to read and rate real ChatGPT conversations. These reviewers, recruited via Crossing Hurdles and paid through Mercor, assess responses on a scale of one to seven, specifically aiming to reduce excessive flattery and overly human-like behavior. While prompts are anonymized, they often contain sensitive personal data, and OpenAI acknowledges that its privacy filters can fail. Some users explicitly requested privacy in their chats, yet their conversations were still reviewed.\n\nOpenAI’s disclosure of this practice is limited to a buried FAQ entry that has remained largely unchanged since 2023. The company argues that explicit consent for human review would likely result in high opt-out rates, undermining the human feedback loop essential for model improvement. Users can disable the \"Improve the model for everyone\" setting, which is enabled by default, or use temporary chat mode to prevent data usage for training. However, this setting only applies to new conversations and does not guarantee that existing data is never accessed by human reviewers.\n\nThis practice is not unique to OpenAI. Anthropic confirmed it uses human reviewers for Claude, and Google notes that humans may review saved Gemini chats. The widespread use of human-in-the-loop evaluation highlights a significant tension between model improvement strategies and user privacy expectations in the AI industry.","keyPoints":["OpenAI contractors read anonymized ChatGPT chats to rate responses and reduce flattery.","Reviewers are paid over $50/hour via Mercor, recruited through Crossing Hurdles.","Anthropic and Google also use human reviewers to improve their respective AI models."],"whyItMatters":"This reveals a significant privacy gap where user data is accessed by humans despite default settings implying automated processing. It highlights the industry's reliance on human feedback for model refinement and the inadequacy of current consent mechanisms for protecting sensitive personal information.","category":{"slug":"society","name":"Society & Work","url":"https://digestai.news/category/society"},"entities":{"companies":["OpenAI","404 Media","Crossing Hurdles","Mercor","Anthropic","Google"],"models":["ChatGPT","Claude","Gemini"],"people":[]},"firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-14T14:22:43Z","updatedAt":"2026-09-15T11:30:00Z","sourceCount":3,"hasPrimarySource":false,"sources":[{"outlet":"The Decoder","title":"OpenAI has hundreds of contract workers reading your ChatGPT conversations","url":"https://the-decoder.com/openai-has-hundreds-of-contract-workers-reading-your-chatgpt-conversations","publishedAt":"2026-09-14T17:15:28Z","type":"press","primary":false,"lead":true},{"outlet":"Tom's Hardware","title":"ChatGPT transcripts are reportedly read by humans to improve responses, including those with personal information — 'Project Lilly' has seen OpenAI hire hundreds of contractors to manually review logs","url":"https://tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/chatgpt-transcripts-are-reportedly-read-by-humans-to-improve-responses-including-those-with-personal-information-project-lilly-has-seen-openai-hire-hundreds-of-contractors-to-manually-review-logs","publishedAt":"2026-09-15T11:30:00Z","type":"press","primary":false,"lead":false},{"outlet":"404media.co","title":"Inside ‘Project Lily’: The Humans Reading Your ChatGPT Chats","url":"https://404media.co/inside-project-lily-the-humans-reading-your-chatgpt-chats","publishedAt":"2026-09-14T14:22:43Z","type":"press","primary":false,"lead":false}],"sourceNotes":null,"discussions":[{"site":"Hacker News","url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49697713","points":38}],"thread":null,"cite":{"text":"Digest AI, \"OpenAI uses hundreds of contractors to review ChatGPT chats\", 14 September 2026, https://digestai.news/story/openai-hires-humans-to-review-chatgpt-prompts","publisher":"Digest AI","title":"OpenAI uses hundreds of contractors to review ChatGPT chats","datePublished":"2026-09-14T14:22:43Z","url":"https://digestai.news/story/openai-hires-humans-to-review-chatgpt-prompts"},"generatedBy":"Written by Digest AI's editorial model from the linked sources; the sources are the record.","license":"Headlines, digests and key points are written by Digest AI and may be quoted with a link to the story page. Linked articles belong to their publishers. Terms: https://digestai.news/terms#reuse"}