Sam Altman issues critical message to anyone who use ChatGPT as a therapist

The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, has issued an important message out to anyone who uses ChatGPT as a therapist, warning your sensitive information could be used in court.

This comes after more and more people have admitted to growing attached to their AI chat assistants.

A shocking study recently revealed that one in five boys aged between 12 and 16 currently has a so-called ‘AI girlfriend’.

Researchers from the men’s organization Male Allies UK spoke to over 1,000 boys across 37 schools throughout the UK and found that conversations about AI relationships came up repeatedly during focus groups.

Around 85% of boys surveyed admitted they had spoken to an AI chatbot before, while 43% said they used them to ask questions they felt too embarrassed to ask real people.

Sam Altman on using ChatGPT as a therapist

More than a quarter said they preferred the attention they received from AI companions compared to real-life interactions, and over a third admitted they sometimes preferred speaking to chatbots instead of friends or family.

But what happens when you pour your heart out to your AI chatbot? They might be great at lending a listening ear but does the conversation really stay between you two?

Well, Altman has weighed in on the matter in a recent interview which has been doing the rounds on social media.

In the clip, which surfaced on X, formerly Twitter, he said: “If you go talk to ChatGPT about your most sensitive stuff and then there’s a lawsuit, we could be required to produce that… it makes sense to… really want the privacy clarity before you use it a lot.”

This has prompted many people to take to the X comment secretion to share their own thoughts on the matter, with one user writing: “People need to stop putting health information into AI. They are keeping your information on an unsecured server. What if an employer was able to get that info? What would that mean for you? This is crazy stuff. What if you were sued and they could pull it like a written diary?”

Another said: “Sam saying that out loud matters. If your most sensitive stuff can get dragged in, that's not a small footnote. That's the whole risk.”

A third person commented: “No, they do not need confidentiality, they need chatgpt to refuse those kind of conversations.”

And a fourth added: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”