ChatGPT users may want to think twice before turning to their AI app for therapy or other kinds of emotional support. According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the AI industry hasn\u2019t yet figured out how to protect user privacy when it comes to these more sensitive conversations, because there\u2019s no doctor-patient confidentiality when your doc is an AI. <\/p>\n
The exec made these comments on a recent episode<\/a> of Theo Von\u2019s podcast, This Past Weekend w\/ Theo Von.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n In response to a question about how AI works with today\u2019s legal system, Altman said one of the problems of not yet having a legal or policy framework for AI is that there\u2019s no legal confidentiality for users\u2019 conversations. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople talk about the most personal sh** in their lives to ChatGPT,\u201d Altman said. \u201cPeople use it \u2014 young people, especially, use it \u2014 as a therapist, a life coach; having these relationship problems and [asking] \u2018what should I do?\u2019 And right now, if you talk to a therapist or a lawyer or a doctor about those problems, there\u2019s legal privilege for it. There\u2019s doctor-patient confidentiality, there\u2019s legal confidentiality, whatever. And we haven\u2019t figured that out yet for when you talk to ChatGPT.\u201d<\/p>\n This could create a privacy concern for users in the case of a lawsuit, Altman added, because OpenAI would be legally required to produce those conversations today. <\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s very screwed up. I think we should have the same concept of privacy for your conversations with AI that we do with a therapist or whatever \u2014 and no one had to think about that even a year ago,\u201d Altman said. <\/p>\n The company understands that the lack of privacy could be a blocker to broader user adoption. In addition to AI\u2019s demand for so much online data during the training period, it\u2019s being asked to produce data from users\u2019 chats in some legal contexts. Already, OpenAI has been fighting a court order<\/a> in its lawsuit with The New York Times, which would require it to save the chats of hundreds of millions of ChatGPT users globally, excluding those from ChatGPT Enterprise customers.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco In a statement on its website, OpenAI said it\u2019s appealing this order, which it called \u201can overreach.\u201d If the court could override OpenAI\u2019s own decisions around data privacy, it could open the company to further demand for legal discovery or law enforcement purposes. Today\u2019s tech companies are regularly subpoenaed for user data in order to aid in criminal prosecutions. But in more recent years, there have been additional concerns about digital data as laws began limiting access to previously established freedoms, like a woman\u2019s right to choose.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n