ChatGPT's human editors

October 16, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The humans inside ChatGPT

OpenAI is paying contractors $50 to $100 an hour to read real ChatGPT conversations and help the chatbot sound less robotic. The project, internally called "Project Lily," employs human reviewers who grade ChatGPT's responses, flag awkward phrasing, and explain what makes an answer sound more human. When Endless Thread co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sievertson were asked to grade a ChatGPT-generated LinkedIn post promoting their own podcast, they gave it a 3 or 4 out of 7. "Not voicey," Sievertson said. "No spunk."

What Project Lily actually is

Joseph Cox, co-founder of 404 Media and the reporter who broke the story, explained that Project Lily is distinct from OpenAI's safety-oriented human review. Safety reviewers look for dangerous or suicidal content. Project Lily reviewers are focused on quality: making ChatGPT's output more natural and less obviously machine-generated.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Show Intro & The Assignment** - Producer Grace Tatter takes over as "boss" and assigns Ben and Amory to grade a ChatGPT-generated LinkedIn post for Endless Thread.
2 (04:31) **The Real Job: Pay and Reality** - Grace explains that this human-reviewer job pays $50-$100/hour, far better than typical starting journalism salaries.
3 (05:03) **The Reddit Post: Scam or Legit?** - A Reddit post in r/jobs questions whether a recruitment email for this AI training job is a scam, using vague corporate language.
4 (07:05) **What is Project Lily?** - Reporter Joseph Cox of 404 Media explains Project Lily is an internal OpenAI program using contractors to review real ChatGPT user conversations.
5 (09:53) **The Human Touch vs. The Uncanny Valley** - Amory expresses deep discomfort with paying humans to make AI sound more human, calling it "contributing to our own demise."
6 (12:30) **What Reviewers Look For** - The human reviewers are trained to flag specific AI tells: excessive emoji use, generic phrases like "fascinating" or "unexpected human stories," and sycophantic language.
7 (15:14) **Privacy Concerns and the Mid-Roll Break** - The conversation shifts to the privacy implications of humans reading user prompts, which may contain deeply personal information.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Ben Brock Johnson Joseph Cox Grace Tatter

Show Notes

Up to a billion people use ChatGPT every week, for everything from the mundane to the weird to the deeply personal. It is commonly assumed that these messages are private – between the user and the LLM. It is commonly assumed that these messages are private – between the user and the LLM. But in some cases, human reviewers are reading these conversations and offering editorial feedback to help ChatGPT sound more human.

Reporter Joseph Cox of 404 Media broke the story of Project Lily, Open AI's initiative to use human reviewers to train and improve ChatGPT. He breaks it down for us on this week's Endless Thread.

Show notes:

Inside ‘Project Lily’: The Humans Reading Your ChatGPT Chats (404 Media)

This episode was produced by Grace Tatter and Frannie Monahan. It was co-hosted by Grace Tatter, Ben Brock Johnson, and Amory Sivertson, and edited by Dave Shaw. Mix and sound design by Paul Vaitkus.