Conversations with artificial intelligence are not private!

If you use ChatGPT to write emails, give advice, or have personal conversations, there's a caveat: your chats are not legally protected. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently warned that user conversations with ChatGPT are not currently protected by any form of legal privacy. Unlike conversations with a doctor, lawyer, or therapist, where legal confidentiality applies, chatting with an AI is not safe from legal claims.

What users perceive as private conversations in real life could become public in the event of a lawsuit if OpenAI receives a legal demand for disclosure. Altman called this a “huge problem” that has arisen due to the rapid growth of AI use in areas such as mental health and personal counseling. Interestingly, this problem was not even considered a year ago.

He stressed that AI conversations are currently without legal protection, even though they are often used as confidential conversations. He has already discussed this issue with lawmakers, but to date no law has been passed that would protect users from such disclosure. This poses a risk of increased surveillance by state authorities. Governments could in the future request access to AI data to fight crime or terrorism.

So if you use AI, be careful. Your conversations with AI are not private until the law keeps up with the technology.