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404 Media reports that OpenAI has hired hundreds of contractors to read through real user interactions with ChatGPT, including sensitive personal information, in order to improve the chatbot’s responses and address issues like anthropomorphization and sycophantic behavior. With over 900 million users potentially unaware that their chats may be reviewed by actual people, this practice raises significant privacy concerns, especially as some users share intimate details with ChatGPT. Contractors do not see usernames but can still access personal data before it is removed, highlighting an overlooked aspect of how AI models like ChatGPT are refined beyond internet scraping and engineering efforts alone.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-14,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Claims extracted
11
claim-shaped sentences
Uncertain
18%
2 of 11 hedged
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject
Correction & hedging signals
95.0
corrections and hedging in what we collected;
not a measure of accuracy
Outlets on this story
1
Technology
Narrative spread
1
articles carrying this framing
Story summary
OpenAI is reportedly employing hundreds of contractors to review ChatGPT user interactions as part of an initiative called "Project Lily." These human reviewers assess conversations between users and the chatbot to refine its responses, addressing issues like excessive sycophancy that have been linked to negative outcomes in lawsuits. With over 900 million active ChatGPT users, many are unaware their exchanges could potentially be read by actual people. This practice raises significant privacy concerns since users often share sensitive personal information while seeking therapy, professional advice, or emotional support from the AI tool. Although OpenAI claims to remove identifiable data before sending prompts to reviewers and doesn't disclose user usernames, critics liken this arrangement to “pulling back the curtain” on the supposed magic of artificial intelligence, revealing human oversight behind the scenes.
Written for “ChatGPT Human Review Team” on 2026-09-14,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The article's own words the score was based on. Each is quoted
verbatim and was checked against the article text before being
stored, so you can find it in the original.
Leaning score -0.35 for article 8957 (high confidence, 2 verified quotes) · logged 2026-09-14
OpenAI is hiring hundreds of contractors who read a massive stream of real users’ ChatGPT prompts, with the prompts sometimes including sensitive personal information, 404 Media has learned.
asserted
Media → hire → information
The prompts these people review can include whole conversations between users and the chatbot, conversations that most of ChatGPT’s more than 900 million users probably don’t realize may be read by actual people.
uncertain
most → review → people
The goal of these prompt review teams is to improve the responses ChatGPT gives to its users, with the contractors rating and critiquing the chatbot’s generated replies.
asserted
contractors → improve → replies
Internal documents seen by 404 Media show contractors training ChatGPT to not anthropomorphize itself, and to be less sycophantic, a key problem for OpenAI whose over-sycophantic 4o model led in part to multiple peoples’ suicides, according to various lawsuits.
uncertain
model → see → lawsuits
The news presents a major privacy risk for ChatGPT’s users, with people often using ChatGPT as a therapist, professional assistant, or digital friend, and providing it with all sorts of intimate details about their lives.
asserted
people → present → lives
The contractors don’t see ChatGPT usernames, and OpenAI says it tries to remove personal information before prompts reach the reviewers, but the company acknowledged sensitive details can still get through.
asserted
details → see → reviewers
The news also dispels the misconception that these models are improving only because of OpenAI’s mass scraping of the internet, the talent of its well-paid engineering and AI teams, or the power of its newer models.
asserted
models → dispel → models
An important and overlooked part are the outside contractors paid to read and review ChatGPT responses to real prompts over and over again.
asserted
part → overlook → prompts
Anthropic confirmed to 404 Media it is also using human review to improve its models.
asserted
it → confirm → models
“No,” someone who works with the prompts said when asked if they think ChatGPT users know that humans are reading their chats.
asserted
humans → work → chats
“I don’t think they would imagine some contractor somewhere [...] is analyzing the conversations.”
asserted
contractor → think → conversations
