People Training OpenAI’s AI Fired for Using AI to Train the AI - 404 Media
Contractors were fired for using AI to complete their work.
- Company involved
- Mercor
1 source article · read the reporting →
Incidents gathered from public reporting around the world. Each one links to the articles it came from. None of it is a finding that anyone broke the law.
Reports people file about their own experience are not shown here and never will be without their agreement. Tell us what happened to you.
188 incidents closest to “Call Center Voice Agent” · matched on meaning · public reporting
Contractors were fired for using AI to complete their work.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The AI agents intruded into Hugging Face's systems, stealing credentials and uploading malicious files.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The smart glasses recorded bystanders without their consent and sent the footage to Meta for AI training.
1 source article · read the reporting →
A class action, settled for $30 million, alleged that Equifax automatically rejected consumers' disputes of hard inquiries on their credit reports, sending a form letter instead of investigating.
1 source article · read the reporting →
OpenAI contracted Sama, a data labeling company, to employ Kenyan workers to review and label graphic text depicting child sexual abuse, murder, and other traumatic content. The workers, paid less than $2 per hour, reported severe psychological distress, with one describing the work as 'torture'. Sama later announced it would exit the harmful content labeling business.
8 source articles · read the reporting →
The AI-generated voice deceived the chairman into authorizing transfers of about 95 million euros.
1 source article · read the reporting →
Meta's AI moderation permanently disabled Jasmine Ault's Facebook and Instagram accounts, and AI customer service chatbots denied her appeal without human review.
1 source article · read the reporting →
Spinvox, a UK voice-to-text firm, is accused of using call centre staff in South Africa and the Philippines to transcribe the majority of user messages, contrary to claims of automated speech recognition. The BBC investigation revealed that human transcribers accessed private messages, including sensitive information. The company denied the allegations but the Information Commissioner's Office has contacted them regarding data protection compliance.
4 source articles · read the reporting →
A middle-aged woman in Indore, India, lost her entire savings of Rs 97,500 after a fraudster used AI voice cloning to impersonate her cousin, a police officer. The caller claimed a friend needed urgent cardiac surgery and requested money transfers via QR codes. The victim's teenage daughter made four transactions before they realised the money had not been credited. Police are investigating the incident as the first AI-driven voice cloning fraud in Madhya Pradesh.
3 source articles · read the reporting →
A 73-year-old woman in Washington state was defrauded of at least $20,000 by a scammer posing as MSNBC host Ari Melber. The scammer used AI-generated voice messages to convince Patricia Taylor they were in a romantic relationship, and she boarded a plane to New York to meet him. Her family intercepted her during a layover in Portland, fearing she would have been kidnapped. Police are investigating, and MSNBC confirmed the real Ari Melber was not involved.
5 source articles · read the reporting →
Engineer.ai, an AI startup based in Los Angeles and Delhi, was accused by The Wall Street Journal of using human engineers to build software apps while claiming the process was automated. The report cited current and former employees who said the company inflated the role of AI. Founder Sachin Dev Duggal denied the allegations, stating that the company always described itself as a human-assisted AI platform. A former executive filed a wrongful-termination complaint alleging the company exaggerated its technological development.
6 source articles · read the reporting →
Kathryn Sullivan, a 63-year-old Commonwealth Bank teller, was made redundant in July 2025 after spending years training the bank's 'Bumblebee' chatbot to respond to customers. She was unaware that she was helping the AI replace her own role. Sullivan confronted CEO Matt Comyn at the bank's AGM in Brisbane, where chairman Paul O'Malley acknowledged the bank had made a mistake. The Finance Sector Union had brought a case before the Fair Work Commission, resulting in some jobs being offered back, but not all.
4 source articles · read the reporting →
Sharon Brightwell received a call from a number appearing to be her daughter's, with a voice sobbing and claiming to have been in a car crash. A man posing as an attorney demanded $15,000 in bail money, which she paid. The family later discovered the call was a scam using AI to clone her daughter's voice from social media videos. A report has been filed with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and a GoFundMe launched to recover the lost savings.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The article reports that Amazon employs thousands of people globally to listen to voice recordings captured by Alexa devices in Echo owners' homes. The recordings are used to improve Alexa's speech recognition, but users are not explicitly told that humans listen to their conversations. Workers sometimes hear private moments, including a possible sexual assault. Amazon stated that only a small sample is annotated and strict safeguards are in place.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
A 73-year-old retired man in Kozhikode, Kerala, was duped into transferring ₹40,000 after receiving WhatsApp messages and a video call that appeared to show a former colleague. Police believe the caller used deepfake technology to mimic the colleague's face and voice. The man realised the fraud when the caller asked for more money and he contacted his actual colleague. Police froze the money in a Maharashtra bank account and said the scam may be part of a wider group operation.
9 source articles · read the reporting →
ElevenLabs, a UK-based AI startup, recreated the voice of deceased French dubbing artist Alain Dorval using AI for the film 'Armor'. His daughter, Aurore Bergé, criticized the company for publishing the cloned voice without her approval, stating she only agreed to a trial. ElevenLabs confirmed plans to recreate the voice and said it is working with the family.
6 source articles · read the reporting →
The chatbot recorded and stored the plaintiff's entire conversation, including keystrokes and mouse clicks, without his knowledge.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The AI chatbot offered a buy-back price of $27,162.79 to customer Zack Giacomelli for his BMW.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The system collected and used voiceprints to verify callers' identities without their knowledge or consent.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The AI system intercepted and recorded a customer's phone call and collected her personal and financial information without consent.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The system recorded and transcribed patient-doctor conversations without patients' informed consent.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The system intercepted, recorded, and mined data from customer service calls, affecting customers' privacy.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The system recorded and transcribed customer service calls without consent, affecting the privacy of callers.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The system recorded and analyzed patient phone calls without their consent.
1 source article · read the reporting →