edit: This is mentioned in the original article. From TFA:
>Sama delivered OpenAI a sample batch of 1,400 images. Some of those images were categorized as “C4”—OpenAI’s internal label denoting child sexual abuse—according to the document. Also included in the batch were “C3” images (including bestiality, rape, and sexual slavery,) and “V3” images depicting graphic detail of death, violence or serious physical injury, according to the billing document. OpenAI paid Sama a total of $787.50 for collecting the images, the document shows.
> Within weeks, Sama had canceled all its work for OpenAI—eight months earlier than agreed in the contracts. The outsourcing company said in a statement that its agreement to collect images for OpenAI did not include any reference to illegal content, and it was only after the work had begun that OpenAI sent “additional instructions” referring to “some illegal categories.” “The East Africa team raised concerns to our executives right away. Sama immediately ended the image classification pilot and gave notice that we would cancel all remaining [projects] with OpenAI,” a Sama spokesperson said. “The individuals working with the client did not vet the request through the proper channels. After a review of the situation, individuals were terminated and new sales vetting policies and guardrails were put in place.”
Be careful here. Read the article closely, here is what it says:
> [Sama] said in a statement that its agreement to collect images for OpenAI did not include any reference to illegal content, and it was only after the work had begun that OpenAI sent “additional instructions” referring to “some illegal categories.”
Note how carefully this is worded - if Time could confidently say that OpenAI asked for C4 images, they would have absolutely put that in the article. Now, this is filtered through PR statements, but it reads to me like a poorly-worded email went out from OpenAI that didn't actually ask for C4 images, but one of Sama's employees interpreted it as an ask, and started collecting without raising any red flags up the chain. And they got fired for it.
Also, I'm not up on the laws regarding this stuff, but are the other, awful categories illegal to collect? If not, there's not much room for ambiguity.
All your word salad ignores this reality.
Where did you earn your law degree?
For those looking for an AI data labeling service also tries to help workers along the way, here's a plug to the company I started "dataprep.be" [4]
We have a small preference for working workers with special needs (deaf, mute and employees with small handicaps). Public subsidies for these type of workers help our case in the EU as well as contraints for some public institutions in the EU to hire more handicap workers.
With clients more sensitive to costs, we also work with remote data labelers from developing countries. We help putting checks in place to limit forced and child labor. We pay 5% extra so they have time to learn high demand tech skills. (Using Khan Academy and free access to a normally 250$/year Datacamp subscription)
Happy to work with the HN crowd or just receive feedback and mentoring! (My email is in my profile)
[1] https://www.vice.com/en/article/88apnv/underpaid-workers-are... [2] https://gizmodo.com/horror-stories-from-inside-amazons-mecha... [3] https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2022-10-20/beh... [4] https://www.dataprep.be
Surely 3 years is too little time to be forgotten.
I suppose none of us gets to go to Kislovodsk ..