{"id":605660,"date":"2026-09-19T21:46:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T21:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/605660\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T21:46:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T21:46:29","slug":"its-just-you-chatgpt-and-your-human-reviewer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/605660\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s just you, ChatGPT, and your human reviewer"},"content":{"rendered":"

TL;DR: It turns out that hundreds of human contractors<\/a> could be reading your ChatGPT conversations in order to help improve the AI. Many users likely don\u2019t know about this step\u2014or how it works. It shows how much consumers are in the dark when it comes to AI data retention and utilization.<\/p>\n

What happened: A stranger could be making upwards of $50 an hour to analyze your ChatGPT logs with a fine-tooth comb, per a new 404 Media investigation. The contractors, who work for Mercor<\/a>\u2014an AI data firm that suffered a major data breach<\/a> this past spring\u2014rate AI responses based on how well the chatbot fulfilled the user\u2019s prompt (being sycophantic and using too many emoji is bad, for example).<\/p>\n

The goal of these chat reviews is to make OpenAI\u2019s models better, but there\u2019s little public documentation on how the process works. Per OpenAI\u2019s help center, humans (usually) only access convos if the user has the \u201cImprove the model for everyone\u201d setting toggled on\u2014it\u2019s on by default for all individual ChatGPT plans. One of its help pages briefly mentions human review<\/a>, but the company didn\u2019t respond to 404\u2019s question asking whether it has explicitly told users about such routine inspection.<\/p>\n

How the review works: If you allow ChatGPT to train on your convos, potentially any ordinary exchange could get a human once-over. All chats are first run through OpenAI\u2019s Privacy Filter model, which attempts to remove personal info\u2014but the AI lab notes that this model \u201ccan make mistakes<\/a>.\u201d Reviewers might also see additional info about a user, including what they\u2019ve previously tried to use ChatGPT for and, in some cases, even where they live.<\/p>\n

Tech news that makes sense of your fast-moving world.<\/p>\n

Tech Brew breaks down the biggest tech news, emerging innovations, workplace tools, and cultural trends so you can understand what’s new and why it matters.<\/p>\n

The data retention fine print: Your ChatGPT convos don\u2019t necessarily disappear just because you delete them, either. According to OpenAI\u2019s privacy policy, that data could remain in its systems if the \u201cImprove model\u201d setting is on and the data\u2019s \u201calready been de-identified and disassociated from your account.\u201d<\/p>\n

The haziness around how long AI labs keep your data\u2014and who is looking at it\u2014isn\u2019t just a concern for consumers. Nvidia and Palantir, among others, are now reportedly considering scaling back<\/a> their use of OpenAI and Anthropic models unless these labs can guarantee their intellectual property won\u2019t be retained, per The Information.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: It\u2019s not just OpenAI that asks humans to review and rate user chats\u2014Anthropic told 404 that it has a similar system. So before you unload every little detail about your finances and personal life to an AI chatbot, consider what the human on the other end will think. \u2014WK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TL;DR: It turns out that hundreds of human contractors could be reading your ChatGPT conversations in order to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-605660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}