ChatGPT is one of the most popular talking points at the moment. Most people have at least tested it out to see what the hype is all about. Although chatbots and AI software are not new concepts, ChatGPT is the first of its kind. Everyone is using it for all sorts of purposes such as writing CVs, drafting emails and researching information. It is creating a lot of excitement amongst users as it can help to save time by doing dreary and time-consuming tasks more efficiently. 

ChatGPT is a very sophisticated AI software that is trained to learn and develop quickly by analysing information and prompts given by its users. It is remarkable in that it can respond to the most obscure questions and produce really well-written answers. However, many people are concerned that this artificial intelligence (AI) might replace jobs in the future because of how clever it is getting. But this might be the least of our worries. 

The question is whether ChaGPT is a risk to our personal privacy and data. This AI has already been banned in Italy due to its potential privacy risks to individuals after it leaked user conversations and payment information. Data leaks or stolen information can cause so much distress to a person along with financial losses if sensitive information such as bank or passport details get into the wrong hands. 

The whole nature of ChatGPT is to collect people’s personal information including when people upload files. People’s personal information is then used to train the AI software. If people ask personal questions about health, finance or legal dilemmas for instance, the chatbot processes and retains this information. The problem is that the questions that someone inputs could be very sensitive to the individual. For instance, let’s say a person asks ChatGPT “what to do when you’re discriminated against at work”, depending on what the individual has told the chatbot, if private details are leaked, this could be really detrimental to someone.  

At the moment AI is not regulated and because it is a very new technology, we don’t fully know how it can be used by hackers or scammers. There have already been glitches with ChatGPT which led to user details being leaked. Until we learn more about this technology, we don’t know the true extent of the risk it puts us in. 

There are other concerns that this chatbot can be used by scammers to create more sophisticated phishing attacks because they can ask ChatGPT to draft very real and convincing messages to persuade victims to give them their personal information. This AI makes it very easy to impersonate other people as you can ask ChatGPT to write text using different tones and styles which can help to commit theft and fraud. 

The key is to be careful with ChatGPT and make sure that you are not giving it any identifiable information about you or asking it any questions that you don’t want other people to know about.