Sam Altman gives a real good reason why Chatgpt shouldn’t be your therapist
If you need another reason to rethink using an AI chatbot as your therapist, take it from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
In recent appearances The past weekend With Theo Von, Altman admits to comedians that the AI industry has not addressed user privacy issues in terms of sensitive conversations. Unlike licensed professionals, AI does not provide doctor confidentiality, and in law, your most personal chat is not protected.
How many people use chatgpt? Tip: Openai sees more than 1 billion prompts every day.
“People talk about the most personal things in their lives,” Altman said. “Young people use it in particular as a therapist, a life coach, asking relationship questions and what to do.”
But there is one major difference: “Now, if you talk to a therapist or attorney or doctor about these issues, it’s legal privilege…we haven’t figured out when talking to Chatgpt.”
Mixable light speed
There is no confidentiality protection and any words in AI therapy courses can be accessed in court or even summoned. As the Trump administration continues to conflict with federal and state governments in AI regulations, the AI industry is currently operating in legal gray areas.
Despite some federal laws targeting deep-hit, how user data for AI chats still depends heavily on state laws. This patchwork of regulations creates uncertainty, especially around privacy, which could hinder wider user adoption. Beyond that, AI models have relied heavily on online data for training, and in some cases, are requiring the generation of user chat data in legal proceedings.
Chatgpt in particular, currently requires OpenAI to keep records of all user conversations (even if these users have been deleted) because it is working with The New York Times. The company is challenging the court’s ruling and is actively seeking to overturn it.
“Even a year ago, no one had to think about that,” Ultraman said.
Disclosure: Mashable’s parent company Ziff Davis filed a lawsuit against Openai in April, accusing it of infringing on Ziff Davis’ copyright in training and operating its AI systems.
