> OpenAI themselves has admitted a weak version of this (that prompts might inadvertedly end up improving the model).

2023:

"The approach also aligned with the company’s broader deployment strategy, to gradually release technologies into the world for people to get used to them. Some executives, including Altman, started to parrot the same line: OpenAI needed to get the “data flywheel” going."

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/11/sam-a... https://archive.is/NmO5P#selection-979.907-979.1177

I don't think this has been a big secret.