OpenAI is reportedly asking third-party contractors to upload actual work samples from previous or current jobs to evaluate and benchmark its AI models. The company instructs contributors to submit both the task request and the resulting deliverable, such as documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, to establish a human performance baseline for its developing AI agents.
While OpenAI directs contractors to anonymize personal data and remove proprietary or confidential information, intellectual property lawyers have raised serious concerns. Experts warn this practice could lead to trade secret misappropriation claims and that contractors could violate non-disclosure agreements with their former employers, even if the data is scrubbed.