More people are turning to ChatGPT as a therapist, but it might not always be a safe space.
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said those therapy-style conversations don’t have the same legal protections as conversations with a real therapist.
“So if you go talk to ChatGPT about your most sensitive stuff and then there’s like a lawsuit or whatever, we could be required to produce that, and I think that’s very screwed up,” Altman told podcaster Theo Von in an episode that aired Wednesday.
“Right now, if you talk to a therapist or a lawyer or a doctor about those problems, there’s like legal privilege for it — there’s doctor-patient confidentiality, there’s legal confidentiality,” Altman added. “We haven’t figured that out yet for when you talk to ChatGPT.”
Altman said there should be the “same concept of privacy for your conversations with AI that we do with a therapist” and that it should be “addressed with some urgency.”
More users — particularly young people — are using ChatGPT as a therapist, life coach, or consulting it for relationship advice, Altman said.
“No one had to think about that even a year ago, and now I think it’s this huge issue of like, ‘How are we gonna treat the laws around this?’” Altman said.
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Unlike conversations on encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp or Signal, it is possible for OpenAI to read chats between users and ChatGPT. This includes staff using conversations to fine-tune the AI model and monitoring for misuse.
According to OpenAI’s data retention policies, deleted chats on ChatGPT Free, Plus, and Pro are permanently deleted within 30 days unless the company is required to keep them for “legal or security reasons.”
In June, The New York Times and other news plaintiffs filed a court order against OpenAI seeking that it retain all ChatGPT user logs, including deleted chats, indefinitely. The order, which OpenAI is appealing, came as part of a wider copyright lawsuit.
Business Insider could not immediately reach OpenAI for comment.
Elsewhere on the Theo Von podcast, Altman, who became a father in February, said he was also worried about the psychological impact addictive social media platforms could have on children.