Sam Altman doesn't seem that concerned about copyright infringement, but says it's 'very screwed up' that OpenAI is legally required to retain chats, which could include 'your most sensitive stuff.'
“Right now, if you talk to a therapist or a lawyer or a doctor about those problems, there’s legal privilege for it. There’s doctor-patient confidentiality, there’s legal confidentiality, whatever. And we haven’t figured that out yet for when you talk to ChatGPT,” Altman said. “I think we should have, like, the same concept of privacy for your conversations with AI that we do with a therapist or whatever.”
While AI companies figure that out, Altman said it’s fair for users “to really want the privacy clarity before you use [ChatGPT] a lot — like the legal clarity.”
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
That final line has me wondering how much of this is Altman worrying about user privacy and how much is trying to find a way to shield evidence from lawsuits against OpenAI, since earlier in the article he specifically mentions having to retain all chats because of The New York Times’s lawsuit against OpenAI.
Oh, he does in fact worry about user privacy as a concept, but not because he cares about your actual privacy. If you’re in doubt, ask yourself whether his company asked your permission to make use of your public or private data that they surely have obtained online somehow.
That final line has me wondering how much of this is Altman worrying about user privacy and how much is trying to find a way to shield evidence from lawsuits against OpenAI, since earlier in the article he specifically mentions having to retain all chats because of The New York Times’s lawsuit against OpenAI.
It is the shield from lawsuits thing. Sam Altman’s actions show he gives zero fucks about user privacy.
The man just wants to scan your eyeballs and use that to track everything you do, is that really so bad?
Doesn’t matter what he does or doesn’t do. AI privacy requires legislation to block subpoenas, but that ain’t ever gonna happen.
Oh, he does in fact worry about user privacy as a concept, but not because he cares about your actual privacy. If you’re in doubt, ask yourself whether his company asked your permission to make use of your public or private data that they surely have obtained online somehow.
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