The Download

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Photos: Adobe Stock

TL;DR: It turns out that hundreds of human contractors could be reading your ChatGPT conversations in order to help improve the AI. Many users likely don’t know about this step—or how it works. It shows how much consumers are in the dark when it comes to AI data retention and utilization.

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—an AI data firm that suffered a major data breach this past spring—rate AI responses based on how well the chatbot fulfilled the user’s prompt (being sycophantic and using too many emoji is bad, for example).

The goal of these chat reviews is to make OpenAI’s models better, but there’s little public documentation on how the process works. Per OpenAI’s help center, humans (usually) only access convos if the user has the “Improve the model for everyone” setting toggled on—it’s on by default for all individual ChatGPT plans. One of its help pages briefly mentions human review, but the company didn’t respond to 404’s question asking whether it has explicitly told users about such routine inspection.

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’s Privacy Filter model, which attempts to remove personal info—but the AI lab notes that this model “can make mistakes.” Reviewers might also see additional info about a user, including what they’ve previously tried to use ChatGPT for and, in some cases, even where they live.

The data retention fine print: Your ChatGPT convos don’t necessarily disappear just because you delete them, either. According to OpenAI’s privacy policy, that data could remain in its systems if the “Improve model” setting is on and the data’s “already been de-identified and disassociated from your account.”

The haziness around how long AI labs keep your data—and who is looking at it—isn’t just a concern for consumers. Nvidia and Palantir, among others, are now reportedly considering scaling back their use of OpenAI and Anthropic models unless these labs can guarantee their intellectual property won’t be retained, per The Information.

Bottom line: It’s not just OpenAI that asks humans to review and rate user chats—Anthropic 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. —WK

      

From The Crew

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Get Siri AI to add conference sessions to your calendar

Apple’s new operating systems launched yesterday, and with them comes Siri AI. There are a ton of things you can do with the improved chatbot, but one I’ve found particularly useful is having it add things to my calendar for me. Specifically, adding sessions from a conference or music festival (or anything with a schedule, really) in just a few steps.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Open your Camera app.
2. Point your camera at the schedule (this works for both printed materials and websites, though it can only see what’s in the frame).
3. From here you have two options: Either ask Siri AI to add the schedule to your calendar out loud or toggle to the Siri feature at the bottom of your Camera app.
4. If you use the voice feature: Siri will scan the page and automatically add the sessions to your calendar (it’ll do all of them, unless you specify which ones).
5. If you use the Camera feature: Siri will bring up an “Add to Calendar” button. Tap that and it’ll show each session individually. You can tap the ones you want to add, or you can hit the “Add All” button at the bottom of the screen.

A few things to note: Right now, this only works with Apple’s built-in Calendar. When I asked Siri to add the sessions to my Google Calendar (and other non-Apple apps), it couldn’t. —SM

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The Zeitbyte

Now playing: the tech mogul flick

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Photo: A24

There’s a new movie genre keeping Hollywood employed these days: the Tech Founder Cinematic Universe. There are at least four films about current and former Silicon Valley moguls coming to theaters in the next few months: a nearly four-hour doc about Elon Musk (who’s been totally chill about the whole thing), a sequel to The Social Network (with a new Mark Zuckerberg), a Sam Altman biopic (played by Andrew Garfield), and what looks to be a truly spine-chilling documentary following the real Elizabeth Holmes.

The films’ trailers have already set off debates about whether the actors are nailing the looks and mannerisms of tech’s most singular figures: Altman’s own brother, for one, joked that the only thing the movie version got right about the ChatGPT creator was the walk. And if you have a vague resemblance to any AI founder whose biopic hasn’t been announced yet—you could get a call from a casting director soon. —WK

Chaos Brewing Meter: ☕☕/5

• These are the 16 Apple products reportedly coming later this year and early 2027.
• “I’m onstage with the besties.” That’s what Jensen Huang said to President Donald Trump yesterday, while putting the call on speakerphone mid-conference session.
• It looks like Claude could soon have a money feature similar to ChatGPT Finances, where you can link accounts and ask the chatbot about your personal finances.
• Well, it truly is colossal: This feature of Zuckerberg is just under 15,000 words and even includes interviews with Zuck’s parents.
• Who cares about two-legged robots when you could have robotic arms mounted on your ceiling like in the Iron Man movies?
• Another day, another city canceling Flock because outside agencies got access to its data when they shouldn’t have.

This time last week...

Readers’ most-clicked story was about this wild photo that shows just how close the tragic Amazon cargo plane crash in Miami came to wiping out a bunch of Cybercabs.