While users’ account details may be anonymised or obscured in shared chatbot transcripts, their prompts may still contain – and risk revealing – personal, sensitive information about someone.
Experts say this highlights mounting concerns over users’ privacy.
“AI chatbots are a privacy disaster in progress,” Prof Luc Rocher, associate professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, told the BBC.
They said “leaked conversations” from chatbots have divulged user information ranging from full names and location, to sensitive details about their mental health, business operations or relationships.
“Once leaked online, these conversations will stay there forever,” they added.
Meanwhile Carissa Veliz, associate professor in philosophy at Oxford University’s Institute for Ethics in AI, said users not being told shared chats would appear in search results is “problematic”.
“Our technology doesn’t even tell us what it’s doing with our data, and that’s a problem,” she said.