OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 per Hour to Make ChatGPT Less Toxic

Re:OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 per Hour to Ma... by andrewstuart on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @01:56PM (#34431204)

This is an eye opening response thank you and a great argument for getting valid work to Africans.

The fact that it’s good for Africans doesn’t absolve rich Silicon Valley tech companies from doing better.

Silicon Valley have developed an eye rolling bad reputation for many reasons.

The CEO of such an organization would be a fool not to realize that this looks bad to the rest of the community.

If I was a tech CEO id be extremely wary of paying anyone $2/hour. What about safety, entitlements, conditions, potential for child labor, hours worked etc.

I totally agree that it’s good for African people to get the work but rich companies have to do a whole lot more than just agree to that and pay $2/hour. They have to ensure that if they’re going to do this sort of thing that not only are they paying the $2, they have 100% ensured the working rights of the people.

And if they’re remotely smart they would go well beyond, for example sponsoring computer science university for 500 young people.

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Re:OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 per Hour to Ma... by naasking on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @02:03PM (#34431303)

> They have to ensure that if they’re going to do this sort of thing that not only are they paying the $2, they have 100% ensured the working rights of the people.

So you want every corporation to have a law enforcement or investigative journalism arm? How would that work exactly?

What rights, specifically, should they be enforcing? European rights? American rights? Australian rights? The UN's human rights?

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Re:OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 per Hour to Ma... by churchill on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @02:00PM (#34431273)

I think it's okay - even preferable - if rich companies decide to pay more, but compared to the alternatives, this "exploitative" gig is actually doing more to lift Africans out of poverty.

We've seen this experiment in China - in one generation, hundreds of millions of Chinese have made the leap from farm labor to the iPhone-owning middle class.

I think companies can choose to pay better, but even if they choose to be "evil, greedy capitalists" it still beats the majority of local alternatives.

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Re:OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 per Hour to Ma... by JamesBarney on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @03:05PM (#34432275)

> If I was a tech CEO I'd be extremely wary of paying anyone $2/hour. What about safety, entitlements, conditions, potential for child labor, hours worked etc.

And thus wouldn't pay Kenyans to do this labor. Not sure that makes any Kenyans better off.

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