Upol EhsanJan 18, 2023

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

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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/

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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 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 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 threadalapite
@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.
Jan 19, 2023 at 7:21pmWeb
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.