Recent revelations by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on a podcast indicate that private conversations with AI chatbots like ChatGPT lack legal confidentiality.
Your private conversations with AI chatbots like ChatGPT may not be as confidential as you might believe. In a recent YouTube podcast episode of This Past Weekend, hosted by Theo Von, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitted that interactions with AI tools are not protected by legal confidentiality, unlike conversations with doctors, lawyers, or therapists. According to Altman, the AI industry simply hasn’t caught up when it comes to protecting deeply personal conversations with users, and if sought legally, they might not remain confidential.
“People talk about the most personal sh*t in their lives to ChatGPT,” Altman confessed. “People use it, young people, especially, use it as a therapist, a life coach; having these relationship problems and [asking] ‘what should I do?’ And right now, if you talk to a therapist or a lawyer or a doctor about those problems, there’s legal privilege for it. There’s doctor-patient confidentiality, there’s legal confidentiality, whatever. And we haven’t figured that out yet for when you talk to ChatGPT.”
Altman warned that this could create a “privacy concern” for users in the case of a lawsuit, explaining that OpenAI would currently be legally obliged to produce those records.
“I think that’s very screwed up. I think we should have the same concept of privacy for your conversations with AI that we do with a therapist or whatever — and no one had to think about that even a year ago,” he added.
Why this is concerning
According to OpenAI, chats deleted by users on ChatGPT Free, Plus, and Pro accounts are typically removed from its systems within 30 days, unless there is a legal or security-related reason to retain them.