What you shouldn't tell ChatGPT if you use it for your job

People used to wonder, “What can ChatGPT do?” Now they’re asking, “What should I tell it?” Many of us know about the dangers of data breaches and how our personal information is used online. However, ChatGPT’s appealing abilities seem to make us forget about the risks we usually try to avoid. Recently, OpenAI introduced a new privacy feature. This feature lets ChatGPT users stop saving chat history. That means conversations won’t be used to make the model better.

Nader Henein, a privacy expert at Gartner, thinks this new feature is a good start. He’s been working in cybersecurity and data protection for twenty years. However, he points out a big problem: once the model is built, it’s hard to control privacy.

Henein compares ChatGPT to a friendly stranger recording you on a bus. They seem nice, but would you have the same conversation if you knew they were recording? Henein warns that even though ChatGPT means well, if it harms you, it’s like dealing with someone who doesn’t care about hurting you.

OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, also admits that ChatGPT has risks. He tweeted in December 2022 that it’s a mistake to rely on it for important things. Altman says there’s a lot of work to do to make ChatGPT more reliable and truthful.

Basically, remember that anything you share online, including with ChatGPT, can potentially be seen by anyone in the world. Gary Smith, an economics professor, advises being cautious about what you share on the internet, as it’s not always private.

You can use ChatGPT for searching like Google or learning from Wikipedia, but it’s important to fact-check the information. However, don’t rely on it too much for important things.

There are risks with using ChatGPT. For instance:

Hackers could break into the app and steal your data. In the past, a bug in ChatGPT exposed some users’ information.
Your conversations are stored on servers, even though OpenAI tries to keep them private. Some OpenAI employees can access your conversations for specific reasons.
Your conversations help train ChatGPT, unless you choose not to share your data. This means your information could be used to improve the AI model.
OpenAI says they won’t sell your data to other companies, but they do share it with some service providers.

Using ChatGPT at work can also have consequences. Some companies have banned it because employees accidentally shared confidential information. It’s easy to forget that what you share with ChatGPT could be seen by others, so be careful.