Time and time again rich people exploit the poor
I just saw this sickening article today [1] [2]. One would think OpenAI would know better, but no. Exploitation by the rich continue to happen all the time.
More than receiving donations, poor people could be paid well for the work they already do, and by extension help economy of their countries.
During moments like this it makes you wonder is the system itself not broken?
One of the solutions could be for EA to make extra effort to 1) hire people in developing countries, and 2) to pay well there. There is also an opportunity to make hiring easier and transparent in foreign countries like providing a service for EA organizations. There could be a norm for searching every possible opportunity to send well paid salaries to developing countries instead of well off people bubbles in western countries or extra rich places like OpenAI’s Silicon Valley. Possibly it can be an effort area of EA.
- ^
Vice article “OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers Making $2 and Hour to Filter Traumatic Content from ChatGPT” https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxn3kw/openai-used-kenyan-workers-making-dollar2-an-hour-to-filter-traumatic-content-from-chatgpt
- ^
Time article “Exclusive: OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour to Make ChatGPT Less Toxic” https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/
Going to unpublish the post, because it lacks nuance and I don’t like it too.
I think this was downvoted so heavily because of the title, rather than the content. I’m glad you raised this and I personally did not know about it previously. Maybe republish under a title like “OpenAI under fire for underpaying Kenyans used to filter ChatGPT traumatic content” or something along those lines?
Thanks—although I instinctively know that a title like this would get downvoted so heavily, I don’t fully understand why. The title seems to me to be true and I doubt many would argue with that statement, although of course it doesn’t describe the content in the post at all. Is the downvoting because it is non-specific and making a generalisation? Could there be an element of vague pro-capitalism and anti socialist sentiment around here which caused it to be downvoted too?
I like Rockwell’s idea to republish under a different name. This seems to me like an important issue which I would love to engage with. For example from my Uganda-centric perspective $2 an hour seems like a pretty good wage to me for this kind of work in Kenya, but obviously these replies will never get seen given the downvoting of the post ;).
Thanks for your thoughts.
My current opinion is that title and content are both unprofessional enough despite saying some truths.
2$ an hour is payment better than no payment in “Uganda-centric perspective”, but this work is creating mental health patients in a country where people cannot receive good support.
On the other hand, I doubt that any country can provide proper support for work where people have to consume the most disturbing content that exist.
It is a tough problem, but it should not be exported to a developing country to deal with, where people don’t have any other choice but take any worst job that comes their way.
What if it would be done the other way around—content be expanded 20x times to match the title well?
I think this title will always get downvoted on this forum, no matter how good the content is.