Humans Are Reading Your ChatGPT Chats, New Lawsuit Claims

In brief

• Two California ChatGPT users filed a proposed class action against OpenAI in the Northern District of California this month, alleging the company let outside contractors read real user conversations without proper disclosure.
• The complaint centers on "Project Lily," an internal OpenAI program in which contractors hired through a staffing firm summarize user prompts and score chatbot answers on a 1-to-7 scale.
• OpenAI has until October 13 to respond in court; the plaintiffs want the "Improve the model for everyone" setting switched off by default and consent required before any human reads a chat.

OpenAI is being sued over who, exactly, gets to read your ChatGPT conversations.

A proposed class action filed this month in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California accuses the company of routing real user chats to outside contractors without properly telling people first. OpenAI was served on September 2.

The lawsuit takes aim at an internal OpenAI initiative called Project Lily, which outlet 404 Media first exposed on September 14. Per the complaint, contractors hired through third-party staffing firms for roles like "AI data reviewer" and "chatbot evaluator" read real ChatGPT prompts and full conversations, summarize what the user was trying to do, and then score and critique four different model responses on a scale of one to seven.