Fast Company exposed last week that Google was indexing ChatGPT conversations that users have shared via public links, exposing personal exchanges intended to be shared just with friends and family.
Nearly 4,500 conversations came up in Google search results, which is likely a fraction of the exposed chats given that Google probably didn't index all of them.
OpenAI claims that shared chats were only indexed if users opted-in, but most users had no idea that they had done so, leading their sensitive conversations about mental health struggles or personal trauma to become publicly searchable.
The finding is concerning given that nearly half of Americans say they've used AI chatbots for psychological support in the last year, primarily for help with anxiety, depression, and other personal issues. Although ChatGPT doesn't include the name of the user, oftentimes users revealed personal details or identifying information in the chats themselves.
I just have one question… OpenAI, are you fucking stupid?
Didn't Meta just take heat for doing almost the exact same thing back in June? At no point did one of OpenAI's overpaid engineers stop and think two months ago, “Well wait a minute boss…”
An OpenAI spokesperson said:
“ChatGPT conversations are private unless you choose to share them. Creating a link to share your chat also includes an option to make it visible in web searches. Shared chats are only visible in Google search if users explicitly select this option.”
I asked ChatGPT just now:
“What percentage of people read the fine print when they click a checkbox on the Internet?”
It replied:
“Studies consistently show that less than 10% of people read the fine print (terms and conditions, privacy policies, etc.) before clicking a checkbox on the Internet. [Followed by some studies.] In short: almost nobody reads the fine print.”
A couple days later, OpenAI pulled the feature that let Google index private chats, even when shared, because they suddenly came to the conclusion that it “introduced too many opportunities for folks to accidentally share things they didn’t intend to.”
However don't think for a second that your chats are private now. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned earlier this month that users shouldn’t share their most personal details with ChatGPT because the company “could be required to produce” the information if requested to do so by a court.