Su the Nasty WomanJan 19, 2023
Upol Ehsan

If you've used ChatGPT, you may have noticed that it's relatively decent at avoiding toxicity. Is it because of some magical AI trick?

Not really.

The real heroes are the ghostworkers who have worked tirelessly to detect toxicity in text containing "child sexual abuse, bestiality...torture, self harm, and incest" (many of which are illegal by US laws).

How much were they paid for this mentally scarring task?

#ChatGPT #AI #ghostwork #datawork #labor #ResponsibleAI #ML #gpt3

1/3

Jan 18, 2023 at 9:54pmWeb
Show threadUpol EhsanJan 18, 2023

Did you know #OpenAI paid outsourced Kenyan workers only $1.32-$2 per hour for this extremely burdensome task?

While the datawork done by these ghostworkers made ChatGPT less toxic, the work left people mentally scarred.

However, the moment the company got whiff of the Time's investigation, they terminated the contract, leaving these human beings high and dry.

https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/

2/3

Exclusive: OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour to Make ChatGPT Less Toxic

A TIME investigation reveals the poor conditions faced by the workers who made ChatGPT possible

Time
Show threadUpol EhsanJan 18, 2023

When we marvel at #AI advances, let us also reflect -- what type of labor made this possible? Was it exploitative?

Much like massive physical monuments were built off the backs of exploited people, the massive digital models are often not that different.

#ChatGPT #AI #ghostwork #datawork #labor #ResponsibleAI #ML #gpt3

3/3

Show threadTim TruxellJan 19, 2023
@upol this is important… read
Show threadKathy BaxterJan 18, 2023
@upol OpenAI is not alone in taking advantage of vulnerable populations by paying them pennies to read & label horrific content. Google, Meta, & Amazon have employed ppl in refugee camps to label their data.
#responsibleAI
https://restofworld.org/2021/refugees-machine-learning-big-tech/
Ideas | Refugees help power machine learning advances at Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon

Big tech relies on the victims of economic collapse.

Rest of World
Show threadUpol EhsanJan 18, 2023
@baxterkb thanks so much for adding on to this. Indeed, OpenAI is not alone. I remember how Mturk was valorized during the imageNet days. Little did we appreciate the grunt work of the MTurkers who made that entire infrastructure possible. As our hunger for data increased, so did the demands on the ghost workers.
Show threadalapiteJan 19, 2023
@upol @baxterkb As unpleasant as it might be to read such news, let’s not lose sight of the plight of the refugees themselves. How would they be any better off if all of these companies took the supposed “high ground” of never offering work to refugees? Are the refugees simply supposed to get by on whatever meagre handouts Western governments and NGOs might deign to give them between fits of absent-mindedness?
Show threadUpol EhsanJan 19, 2023
@alapite @baxterkb big difference between offering work to refugees and exploiting them for their labor. No one here is advocating that the work shouldn't be there. Everyone here is saying that work, when given, should not be exploitative. Having personally worked with refugees, I can attest that exploitative work causes net harm.
Show threadalapiteJan 19, 2023
@upol @baxterkb But what exactly does “exploitative” mean here? The point I’m trying to make is that all too often people use the term without bothering to ask if those being “exploited” have any alternatives. As someone who has lived on the other side of this story, I know that it’s perfectly rational to prefer “exploitation” to wasting one’s life in supposedly dignified inactivity and destitution. Let the refugees decide if they’re being exploited rather than making the decision for them.
Show threadUpol EhsanJan 21, 2023
@alapite @baxterkb Thanks for sharing your lived experience. No one is undercutting your lived experience. We are making "yes and" points, not "no, but".
Show threadKathy BaxterJan 19, 2023
@alapite @upol These companies can afford to pay more than $1.32/day. Sama, the contracted vendor, claiming they are lifting ppl out of poverty is not true. And they could offer mental health support to individuals exposed to the most horrific content the web has to offer.
Show threadalapiteJan 19, 2023
@baxterkb @upol The question isn’t whether these jobs are “lifting people out of poverty” (whatever that means), the question is whether those taking these jobs have better alternatives, and what will happen to them if you get your wish by depriving them of the current options in the name of hypothetically superior opportunities that might never materialise. Refugees and developing world residents are just as rational as we are, and just as eager for good pay *if* they can find it.
Show threadUpol EhsanJan 19, 2023

@alapite @baxterkb Hi Alapite, I do not see any claims that people from the Majority World, including refugees, aren't as rational as "we" are (whatever we means here).

I think we agree that those "taking" these jobs often don't have better alternatives. The problem is with those *giving* these jobs. They know better. They can do better.

Show threadneilerikssonJan 19, 2023
@upol Fascinating, and disturbing sorry.
Show threadDavid KargerJan 19, 2023
@upol apparently minimum wage there is around 50 cents/hour. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/kenyan-president-hikes-countrys-minimum-wage-by-12-2022-05-01/
Kenyan president hikes country's minimum wage by 12%

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Sunday his government would hike the country's minimum wage by 12% immediately to help workers cope with a surge in consumer prices, driven in part by the war in Ukraine.

Reuters
Show threadTim TruxellJan 19, 2023
@upol three steps behind you my friend… but am amplifying this as much as I can.