The Ghost Workers
Who labels your training data?
An investigation into the hidden human cost of artificial intelligence.
$1.32/hour
What OpenAI paid Kenyan workers to make ChatGPT "safe"
Source: TIME Magazine, January 18, 2023
What the work involves
Before ChatGPT could become "safe" for you to use, thousands of workers in Kenya, the Philippines, Venezuela, and India had to read and label the most disturbing content imaginable.
Child sexual abuse material (CSAM)
Graphic descriptions of bestiality, torture, and murder
Detailed accounts of suicide and self-harm
Extreme hate speech and incitement to violence
The workers
"That was torture... I couldn't even think anymore. My brain was just stuck."
— Kenyan data labeler, after reading graphic description of child abuse
"The work's traumatic nature eventually led Sama to cancel all its work for OpenAI eight months earlier than planned."
— TIME Magazine investigation
"I couldn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw it again."
— Content moderator, describing recurring visions
Mental Health Impact
Score at levels associated with clinical depression
Moderate-to-severe psychological distress
Source: PubMed Study, 2024
The pay disparity
Kenyan Data Labeler
per hour
OpenAI Engineer (SF)
per year
How long to afford basic needs at $2/hour?
Where the work happens
AI companies outsource this work to the Global South, where labor is cheap and regulations are weak.
🇰🇪 Kenya
Major hub for OpenAI, Meta, Google
Avg. wage: $1.32-2/hour
🇵🇭 Philippines
Content moderation for social media
Avg. wage: $2-3/hour
🇻🇪 Venezuela
Data labeling under strict timers
Often no bathroom breaks
🇮🇳 India
Large-scale annotation work
Algorithmic surveillance
The race to the bottom: As AI companies compete, they push wages lower and conditions worse. Workers in these countries often don't know who they're working for or what their data will be used for.
Why "ghost" workers?
They're called "ghost workers" because they're invisible to you. When you use ChatGPT, you don't see them. When you read that AI is "safe," you don't think about them. When tech companies talk about "AI safety," they rarely mention them.
They can't speak to managers directly
They get no feedback on their work
They have no labor protections
They're paid through third-party contractors to avoid liability
They're bound by NDAs that prevent them from speaking out
The AI industry is built on a foundation of invisible, exploited labor. Without these workers, ChatGPT would be unusable. But they're kept hidden—because if you knew the human cost, you might ask uncomfortable questions.
What the companies say
OpenAI's response
OpenAI stated they require partners to pay workers a living wage and provide mental health support. However, workers reported earning far below living wage and receiving inadequate mental health resources.
The contract was terminated early due to "traumatic nature" of the work.
Meta's legal battles
In 2024, a Spanish court ruled that a content moderator's mental health condition was work-related. Meta reached settlements in cases accusing them of failing to protect moderators from psychological injuries.
Source: The Japan Times, July 2025
The contradiction
AI companies claim their systems are "autonomous" and "intelligent," but they depend entirely on massive human labor forces working in conditions that would be illegal in Silicon Valley.
What you can do
Support labor organizing
Workers are organizing. Follow and support groups like the Communications Workers of America's Ghost Workers campaign.
Demand transparency
Ask AI companies: Who labeled your data? What were they paid? What mental health support did you provide?
Support regulation
Advocate for laws protecting content moderators and data workers, including mental health support and living wages.
Recognize the labor
Every time you use AI, remember: there's a human behind it who may have been traumatized to make it work.
Share this story
The only way to change this is to make it visible. Share what you learned.
"There is no such thing as fully autonomous AI. Behind every system is human labor—exploited and hidden from view."
Every "AI safety" feature comes at a human cost.