--- title: "OpenAI Reportingly Hiring “Army” of Devs to Train AI to Replace Entry-Level Coders" description: "Silicon Valley darling and ChatGPT creator OpenAI has reportedly hired roughly 1,000 contractors with the goal of improving its text-to-code AI, Codex." date: "2023-01-30" modified: "2023-01-31" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-replace-entry-level-coders-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "artificial inteligence" - "coding" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # OpenAI Reportingly Hiring “Army” of Devs to Train AI to Replace Entry-Level Coders ![Silicon Valley darling and ChatGPT creator OpenAI has reportedly hired roughly 1,000 contractors with the goal of improving its text-to-code AI, Codex.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Step-by-Step A [new report from *Semafor*]() alleges that Silicon Valley darling and ChatGPT creator OpenAI has been making major moves to hire an "army" of outside contractors to better train a model how to code — an operation that could ultimately render entry-level coding jobs extinct. The company, per *Semafor*, has brought on roughly 1,000 of these contractors — most of whom live "in regions like Latin America and Eastern Europe," according to sources familiar with the matter — in the past six months. About 60 percent of those hired were reportedly brought to do [data labeling]() work, while the other 40 percent are computer programmers tasked with making software engineering datasets to train OpenAI's models on. "A well-established company," reads a translated Spanish-language OpenAI job listing posted by an outsourced recruiter, according to *Semafor*, "which is determined to provide world-class AI technology to make the world a better and more efficient place, is looking for a Python Developer." During the interview process, prospects are reportedly asked to complete unpaid five-hour-long coding exams that involve identifying basic coding problems and providing solutions, explaining their step-by-step thinking in written English. One of OpenAI's products, [Codex](), is an AI-powered text-to-code generator designed to translate written word into functioning computer programs. "They most likely want to feed this model with a very specific kind of training data," an anonymous South American programming applicant told *Semafor*, "where the human provides a step-by-step layout of their thought process." ## Join the Club Codex has been mostly trained on code taken from GitHub, a practice that has offered the model some success as an assistive program, autocompleting and spell-checking code with some proficiency. GitHub — notably owned by Microsoft, [OpenAI's financial overlord]() — even offers a Codex-powered "Copilot," which is basically like Grammarly for programmers. The work of these recently-hired contractors, however, would almost certainly take that type of AI to the next level. Knowing what a line of code *might* *look like* is one thing. Having a nuanced understanding of why and how a program needs to be written is entirely another, and by quietly outsourcing human engineers' thought processes, OpenAI seems intent on closing that gap. And while these machines likely won't be writing any high-level programs anytime terribly soon, it feels fair to say that programmers looking for lower-level coding work should be wary of job prospects in the near future. Sorry, y'all — [we hate]() [to see]() [anyone else]() [join that party](). **READ MORE:** [*OpenAI has hired an army of contractors to make basic coding obsolete*]() \[*Semafor*\] **More on OpenAI contractors:** [*OpenAI Apparently Paid People in the Developing World $2/Hour to Look at the Most Disturbing Content Imaginable*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()