The Issue

Richard Mathenge’s story is not just heartbreaking. It is a warning. The pain and trauma he experienced while doing essential labor for AI systems exposes a brutal truth: our technological progress is being built on exploitation.

We cannot ignore this. OpenAI and every company in this space must be held to account.

Behind every polished model are workers in low-income countries handling the most disturbing content imaginable. They are underpaid, under-protected, and invisible by design. This is not innovation. It is injustice.

OpenAI says it wants to benefit all of humanity. That claim rings hollow while workers like Richard are left traumatized and unsupported.

OpenAI must act now. Here is what it should do:

👉🏽Pay living wages that reflect local cost of living
👉🏽Implement trauma-informed policies for content moderators
👉🏽Enforce protections against discrimination
👉🏽Disclose labor sourcing and outsourcing practices in full
👉🏽Provide financial compensation and long-term care for those harmed, including workers already diagnosed with PTSD

These are not nice-to-haves. They are moral minimums.

A recent Oxford study found that 78 percent of tech workers in high-exposure roles experience job-related trauma. These are real people. Not tools. Not abstractions. Their labor powers the systems many now rely on.

OpenAI has the power to set a new ethical standard. It can show the world what responsibility looks like. Or it can remain complicit in the harm that sustains it.

✍🏽 Choose action. Sign the petition.

Let’s build a future where no one is sacrificed to make the technology work.