Comment by jstarfish | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jstarfish | Hacker News Reader

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> A new report from NBC News shows that OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, has been paying droves of U.S. contractors to assist it with the necessary task of data labelling—the process of training ChatGPT’s software to better respond to user requests. The compensation for this pivotal task? A scintillating $15 per hour.

> In the case of OpenAI’s mod’s, the data labellers receive no benefits and are paid little more than what amounts to minimum wage in some states. Savreux is based in Kansas City, where the minimum wage is $7.25.

Clever wordsmithing. "Scintillating"?

"Truly a Dickensian tale of woe: the suffering knowledge worker eking out his meager existence, clicking a tiny button to sort text into bins for seeming-endless hours whilst earning the paltry wage of $15/hr-- a sum no less than twice the regional minimum wage, and ill-suited to address the medical needs inflicted upon him by the laborious demands of the overseers."

This isn't skilled labor. McDonald's employees earn less, work more, and suffer regular injury.

> McDonald's employees earn less, work more, and suffer regular injury.

I'd file this under "Not even wrong." What does it matter that there are even more-exploited workers in the world? Does worker exploitation not matter as long as a North Korean farmer (or whoever) is earning less, working more, and suffering regular injury?

ChatGPT and other AI technologies are marketing themselves as futuristic technologies that will revolutionize everything and utterly transform the economy, while also earning untold billions in the process. The fact that a crucial part of the labor is performed not by algorithms but by workers earning less than a living wage is a contradiction ChatGPT and its proponents need to reckon with.

> wage of $15/hr-- a sum no less than twice the regional minimum wage

Cost of living for a single person in a 1-bedroom apartment outside the city center is about $2200 a month. Guess what? After taxes, that's more than you earn working 40 hours a week at this job. The only thing your snarky comment proves is that the regional minimum wage is criminally low.

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Kansas-City

> Does worker exploitation not matter as long as a North Korean farmer (or whoever) is earning less, working more, and suffering regular injury?

This isn't worker exploitation. This is White People Bullshit. Are you seriously comparing a guy who does the equivalent of surfing 4chan all day to a DPRK farmer?

Every Asian, Black, Indian, and Mexican in a 2000-mile radius around either of us figured this out generations ago.

> Cost of living for a single person in a 1-bedroom apartment outside the city center is about $2200 a month. Guess what? After taxes, that's more than you earn working 40 hours a week at this job. The only thing your snarky comment proves is that the regional minimum wage is criminally low.

Save water, shower together.

2-bedroom apartments aren't much more expensive than that. Between two people, you're down to $1250 for rent. Each additional party halves it again. One simple trick to affordable housing!

But that involves having to cohabitate or share anything with other humans, something most people seem fundamentally incapable of these days. Roommates? Gross! Marriage? Never!

I've never been able to afford a 1-bedroom apartment in my life, and don't expect to. I'm not losing sleep over some guy getting paid $15 an hour to do a job requiring so little skill it could be performed while drunk not being able to afford the luxury of living alone.

> Cost of living for a single person in a 1-bedroom apartment outside the city center is about $2200 a month. Guess what?

Why would someone with only the skills of a labeled live alone and outside the city center?

This person definitely needs roommates and living in a cheap place.

Not everyone gets to life where they want. Especially if they make $15/hour. Especially since labelers are literally training their AI replacements and won’t have a job in the next few years.

This isn’t a case of criminally low wages. This is a case of poor analysis and unrealistic expectations.

This is a symptom of low wages. The lifestyles you expect of people are a result of you being conditioned to think they’re acceptable.

https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/

Oh good, the commie brigade is here to tell us you have to pay individuals enough to live in a certain size apartment in the center of the city, while raising three kids as a single parent, and have more leftover for hobbies.

And if these people got paid whatever magical amount you deem appropriate, would you promise to stop complaining, or would you suddenly decide everyone deserves a five bedroom apartment?

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