ChatGPT is not a therapist: correspondence with artificial intelligence can be used in court
фото: Reuters
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that users’ correspondence with ChatGPT is not completely confidential and could be used in court. Until the legal status of AI chatbots is settled, even the most personal confessions in the chat are not protected by law, as is the case with medical, legal, or psychotherapy confidentiality.
He said this in an interview with Theo Vaughn.
Altman noted that more than 100 million users trust ChatGPT with their thoughts, feelings, and even legal or medical queries every day. But such conversations are not legally protected . Unlike a conversation with a therapist, lawyer, or doctor, where there is a clear confidentiality regime, AI does not have the same legal status.
Altman stressed that OpenAI could be legally obligated to provide users’ chats if a court orders it to do so. This is especially true if the chats mention illegal activities, criminal planning, or other sensitive topics. If you’re talking to ChatGPT about something very personal, “you have to be prepared that it could be made public,” he said.
ChatGPT conversations, while not stored indefinitely, can remain on OpenAI’s servers for up to 30 days — sometimes longer in the event of policy violations or legal requests. This sets the platform apart from encrypted messengers like Signal or WhatsApp, where technically even developers don’t have access to the content.
Altman acknowledged that the legal regime for communicating with AI needs to be updated.
“We should strive for the same level of confidentiality that is provided in other professional fields,” he said.
However, until this happens, users should be especially careful and not share in the chat what they would not want to see in the materials of the criminal proceedings.
Recall that Ukraine has officially begun developing a national large language model (LLM) — artificial intelligence capable of deeply understanding the Ukrainian language, context, and cultural features.
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