ChatGPT is powered by a hidden army of contractors making $15 per hour

[nanoguy]

Why it matters: OpenAI is a relatively small company with less than 400 full-time employees, but its ambitions are to advance cutting-edge artificial intelligence research and build AI tools that rival those of tech giants like Google, Facebook, and others. To that end, the startup that created the tech underpinning ChatGPT uses over a thousand contract workers that are paid $15 per hour with no benefits to improve the accuracy and thus usefulness of the popular chatbot.

By now even the most casual followers of tech news have heard of ChatGPT. It's the result of a collaboration between Microsoft and OpenAI and fuel for a lot of enthusiasm as well as concerns about the potential negative impact it may have on millions of full-time jobs. You can also think of it as one of the fastest-growing app to date, with well over 100 million monthly users that are poking and prodding it to see what it can generate from various text prompts.

As you'd expect, training the large language model behind ChatGPT as well as running the popular service is no easy task. The two companies use tens of thousands of Nvidia A100 and H100 GPUs that cost between $10,000 and $40,000 per unit, as well as advanced power delivery, networking, and cooling equipment. OpenAI also employs hundreds of researchers and engineers that use what is essentially a supercomputer in developing increasingly sophisticated AI models such as GPT-4.

In other words, chatbots powered by AI are an expensive exercise. In the case of ChatGPT, just keeping the hardware infrastructure behind it running requires as much as $700,000 per day. And according to two OpenAI contractors interviewed by NBC News, improving the accuracy and appeal of ChatGPT is possible thanks to a hidden army of workers that help in teaching it how to analyze user input and respond to various requests.

To get an idea of the kind of work they are doing, we'll use a little-known fact about Google's reCAPTCHA service. Some websites use so-called CAPTCHA tests to determine whether or not you are a robot before they load the actual content of the page you wanted to visit. In the case of reCAPTCHA, this test requires that you correctly recognize text or objects from an image or a series of images. At the same time, you are helping Google in the training of specialized AI models.

The work contractors do to improve ChatGPT is more complex, but similarly crucial to the chatbot's continued success. One such worker is Alexej Savreux, a 34-year-old living in Kansas City, who believes "you can design all the neural networks you want, you can get all the researchers involved you want, but without labelers, you have no ChatGPT. You have nothing."

Also read: Could artificial intelligence be about to take over your job?

OpenAI has hired over 1,000 remote contractors from the US, Latin America and Eastern Europe to do the grueling work required to improve the output of tools like ChatGPT. For Savreux, the main appeal is the "$15 per hour and up' he earns from doing it that helped him out of homelessness. For Jatin Kumar, a Texan college graduate with a degree in computer science, it feels like a great opportunity to see generative AIs evolve and personally contribute to making them more useful.

For a technology that is supposedly threatening many jobs, AI tools require a large workforce to ensure accuracy and trust through a human feedback loop, something Google has failed to do with Bard. And while some companies are looking at ways to replace some of their employees with generative AIs, there are many more that are wary of potential data leaks, over reliance on chatbots for mission-critical projects, and the difficulty of squeezing useful results out of such tools for time-sensitive work.

In related news, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the remote work "experiment" is over as the technology we have is not yet good enough to make it practical for tech companies, no matter how big or small. This controversial view is shared by several executives in the tech industry, though recent studies suggest people working office jobs prefer remote or hybrid arrangements for a variety of reasons.

Masthead credit: Rolf van Root

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https://www.techspot.com/news/98600-chatgpt-powered-hidden-army-contractors-making-15-hour.html

 

[EdmondRC]

Lol, Babylon Bee totally called it.... AGAIN!

 

[ScottSoapbox]

“the grueling work required”

Grueling? Really? Your bias is showing.

First off, no one forced these people to take the job.

Second, there are far worse jobs than sitting at a computer at home labeling things. Cleaning hotel rooms, fast food, entry level construction work, etc.

 

[wiyosaya]

Sounds about like right. Maybe the "developers" that they hired for the job like the fact that they have employment, but still, paying them $15/hr sounds typical of the race to the bottom and expending as little as you can while maximizing your profits. Exploitation is a must in that formula.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

“the grueling work required”

Grueling? Really? Your bias is showing.

First off, no one forced these people to take the job.

Second, there are far worse jobs than sitting at a computer at home labeling things. Cleaning hotel rooms, fast food, entry level construction work, etc.

Maybe not grueling, but sitting at a computer all day is very detrimental to your mental and physical health. At least you're getting exercise and interacting with people in those other jobs you mentioned.

 

[someOtherGuy]

Sounds about like right. Maybe the "developers" that they hired for the job like the fact that they have employment, but still, paying them $15/hr sounds typical of the race to the bottom and expending as little as you can while maximizing your profits. Exploitation is a must in that formula.

Are you ready to pay a monthly subscription for ChatGPT? That's probably what would go to those contractors' wages. Also, are we sure that OpenAI is out of red numbers? Is ChatGPT profitable?

 

[yannus]

"For a technology that is supposedly threatening many jobs, AI tools require a large workforce to ensure accuracy". Amazon also has plenty of workers, but compared to the jobs they terminated, we're talking big numbers.

 

[Julnor]

That's capitalism and the American way. Use an army of cheap or unpaid labor to build what you need, then boot them out while reaping all the rewards. The system really only works as long as the people support the gains flowing up to the plutocrats at the expense of the rest of society. Propaganda and indoctrination have done well to ensure this support from the masses, while we have homeless, hungry and the working poor suffering in the richest nation in world history.

I'm middle aged and will probably die before this stuff really falls apart, my only hope is I go before the Boomers. I want the Boomers to live practically forever and suffer through this.

 

[Uncle Al]

ChatGPT is powered by a hidden army of contractors making $15 per hour

Which means there is little to NO loyalty so all of it will be hacked and sold to the highest bidders .....

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Maybe not grueling, but sitting at a computer all day is very detrimental to your mental and physical health. At least you're getting exercise and interacting with people in those other jobs you mentioned.

Well, enjoy cleaning toilets and digging ditches then.

I as an introvert enjoy working at a computer at home and then going outside for exercise and enjoying riding my motorcycles with good friends.

Pro Tip: Jobs are for money not your entire life’s fulfillment.

 

[veLa]

Reminds me of Adult Swim's parody infomercial, "For-Profit Online University", where you quickly learn that everyone that graduates is offered a job as a "Digital Gardener" and actually just answers captchas all day to keep out a rogue bot named Howard.

Highly recommended for anyone looking for a quick laugh:

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

The outstanding power of AI: Amazon Mechanical Turk's alienating, grinding work plus benefits?

 

[DSirius]

This reminds me about car running on water joke.
An inventor has announced that he has invented a car that runs with water.
He presented it at an invention fair. In tests it ran 100 km on just 4 liters of water. Although after the end of the ride, there were strange noises coming under the hood of the car. The judges opened the bonnet to find 4 sweaty men shouting: Water, Water.
By the way, those 4 men were payed the same 15$/hour too.

 

[rdy4trvl]

Grueling??? Compared to?

"OpenAI has hired over 1,000 remote contractors from the US, Latin America and Eastern Europe to do the grueling work..." Wow, if you live in Venezuela, this is a big win - for that lucky individual(s) and for the US as they're less likely to join the masses in Mexico at the border.

And as noted...."For Savreux, the main appeal is the "$15 per hour and up' he earns from doing it that helped him out of homelessness."

 

[hwertz]

So, the OpenAI CEO says the "remote work" experiment is over while using 1000 remote workers for training the AI? OK then...

 

[Gastec]

What are you trying to say, that 15$/h is not good enough? Be lucky you even have that, instead of a robot doing it for 3kW/h.

 

[Gastec]

“the grueling work required”

Grueling? Really? Your bias is showing.

First off, no one forced these people to take the job.

Second, there are far worse jobs than sitting at a computer at home labeling things. Cleaning hotel rooms, fast food, entry level construction work, etc.

There is no job worse that having to spend half of your day looking at the screen of your smartphone, stressed up by all the replies you have to write on all those social networked apps.

 

[waclark]

Maybe not grueling, but sitting at a computer all day is very detrimental to your mental and physical health. At least you're getting exercise and interacting with people in those other jobs you mentioned.

I don't know that I agree with that. Lots of people sit at their computer all day, many do it for much more than $15/hr but they are otherwise healthy, functional people. Just because you're getting $15/hr certainly doesn't prevent you from going outside and exercising.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

I don't know that I agree with that. Lots of people sit at their computer all day, many do it for much more than $15/hr but they are otherwise healthy, functional people. Just because you're getting $15/hr certainly doesn't prevent you from going outside and exercising.

These jobs mentioned in the article are low paying dead end jobs for $15, not high end jobs that pay way more than $15. Higher paying jobs that pay way more than $15 is "worth it" for the money in exchange for destroying your health, social skills, and sanity by sitting in front of a computer all day. But low end jobs that only pay $15 is not worth it for most people (at least not for most able bodied people who live in the USA or some other rich first world country).

Of course you can go outside and exercise...but a job where you sit in front of a computer screen for 8 hours is never going to be as mentally and physically good for you as jobs that actually require you to move around and talk to people.

 

[waclark]

These jobs mentioned in the article are low paying dead end jobs for $15, not high end jobs that pay way more than $15. Higher paying jobs that pay way more than $15 is "worth it" for the money in exchange for destroying your health, social skills, and sanity by sitting in front of a computer all day. But low end jobs that only pay $15 is not worth it for most people (at least not for most able bodied people who live in the USA or some other rich first world country).

Of course you can go outside and exercise...but a job where you sit in front of a computer screen for 8 hours is never going to be as mentally and physically good for you as jobs that actually require you to move around and talk to people.

The rate of pay is somewhat irrelevant here. I'm debating whether a job sitting at a computer is detrimental to your physical and mental health and social skills. I don't think the job is the issue. Sure, there are likely some folks who would do poorly in that kind of job, but I would argue it's not the job, but the person. Their personality, bad eating habits, lack of any real exercise is the issue. Not the job. I know lots of computer specialists who are just fine mentally and physically. In fact, many of the people I know have extracurricular hobbies like hiking, biking, camping, skiing and other physically demanding activities.

As for comparing computer jobs to other jobs, it depends. I would say that having a job working at a convenience store is probably far worse mentally and physically than working at home in front of a computer. There are plenty of unhealthy, mentally deficit people working at the Quickie Mart. As for mental stress, I guarantee you that a high-pressure sales job is far more mentally taxing that sitting at home in front of your computer.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

The rate of pay is somewhat irrelevant here. I'm debating whether a job sitting at a computer is detrimental to your physical and mental health and social skills. I don't think the job is the issue. Sure, there are likely some folks who would do poorly in that kind of job, but I would argue it's not the job, but the person. Their personality, bad eating habits, lack of any real exercise is the issue. Not the job. I know lots of computer specialists who are just fine mentally and physically. In fact, many of the people I know have extracurricular hobbies like hiking, biking, camping, skiing and other physically demanding activities.

As for comparing computer jobs to other jobs, it depends. I would say that having a job working at a convenience store is probably far worse mentally and physically than working at home in front of a computer. There are plenty of unhealthy, mentally deficit people working at the Quickie Mart. As for mental stress, I guarantee you that a high-pressure sales job is far more mentally taxing that sitting at home in front of your computer.

You're talking about what they do on their side in their free time. Not what they do at their job. Those people who have extracurricular hobbies like hiking, biking, camping, skiing and other physically demanding activities are getting exercise in their free time and are healthy DESPITE their job that is 8 hours of sedentary behavior staring into a computer screen without much human contact. And if they have enough money to do expensive hobbies like skiing (or buying high end camping or biking equipment), then they're probably not working a low paying dead end $15 an hour job that the article is talking about.

On the other hand, actual physical jobs that require moving around means people actually get exercise in the job itself.

Yeh, a high pressure sales job is mentally taxing than "a lot" of computer jobs. However, many high pressure sales jobs that are also done in front of computers are mentally taxing too. Monotone high volume computer jobs are also mentally taxing. Overall, a job that gets you to interact with people is usually much better mentally in the long run,.