Thousands of contractors assessed users’ prompts and chatbot responses, but were not supposed to use AI themselves. Three contractors told 404 Media that people had been fired or removed from projects for doing so.

One said AI use was “pretty much the one thing that will get you kicked off ASAP”, adding that “in a group of thousands there are tons that have been caught”.

Internal guidance reportedly tells reviewers not to use AI, Grammarly, translation software or AI detection tools when assessing work.

A spokesperson for Mercor, an AI-training company which takes on contractors who review ChatGPT-related material, said: “When we confirm an expert has used AI to complete a task, we immediately remove them from the project.”