Content moderators who worked on ChatGPT say they were traumatized by reviewing graphic content: 'It has destroyed me completely.'

• Moderators who reviewed content for ChatGPT say they were made to read pages of disturbing text.
• One former Sama employee told The Guardian he would often read up to 700 text passages per day.
• The content often depicted graphic scenes of violence, sexual abuse, or bestiality, per The Guardian.

Kenyan moderators who reviewed content for OpenAI's ChatGPT say they were made to read graphic text passages, paid poorly, and offered limited mental health support in a new report by The Guardian.

The moderators were employed by Sama, a California data annotation company that had a contract with OpenAI and has also offered data labeling services to Google and Microsoft. Sama ended its partnership with OpenAI in February 2022. Time reported that the California company cut ties with OpenAI because of its concerns over working with potentially illegal content for AI training.

One moderator reviewing content for OpenAI, Mophat Okinyi, told The Guardian that he would often read up to 700 text passages daily. He said that many of these passages centered around sexual violence and the work caused him to grow paranoid about those around him, eventually damaging his mental health and relationship with his family.

Another former moderator, Alex Kairu, told the news outlet that what he saw on the job, "destroyed me completely." He said he became introverted and his physical relationship with his wife deteriorated.

Representatives for OpenAI and Sama did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. OpenAI did not provide The Guardian with a statement.

These moderators told The Guardian that the content up for review often depicted graphic scenes of violence, child abuse, bestiality, murder, and sexual abuse. The workers were paid somewhere between $1.46 and $3.74 an hour for the work, a Sama spokesperson told the news outlet. Time previously reported that the data labelers were paid less than $2 an hour to review content for OpenAI.

Now, four of the moderators are calling on the Kenyan government to investigate the working conditions during the contract between OpenAI and Sama, per The Guardian.

The moderators say they weren't given adequate mental health support for the work they were doing. Sama has disputed this claim. The company told The Guardian that workers had access to therapists on a 24/7 basis and received other medical benefits.

"We are in agreement with those who call for fair and just employment, as it aligns with our mission," a Sama spokesperson told the news outlet, "and believe that we would already be compliant with any legislation or requirements that may be enacted in this space."