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When ChatGPT turns informant

futureofbeinghuman.com

21–30 of 144 posts

Re: When ChatGPT turns informant

#21
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use "Will I be ok with this transcript between me and ChatGPT being read back verbatim in a court of law?" as a guide for what you send ChatGPT.

The practical short answer is yes, yes it will. It is not privileged communication. It is not considered private since you have left it on a third party server. It is discoverable via legal process to the third parties that retain the chat log. The same goes for communications on any social media or public forum, including discussions here on HN.

Emails on a third-party server are still considered private? That doesn't mean they can't be subpoenaed but they're far from being public.

Re: When ChatGPT turns informant

#22
post #17

I'm not sure I see how this is meaningfully different than the threat posed by a search engine. It's a very real threat, and I've always done my best to search from a browser context that isn't logged in as a result. But it's not a new threat, or something distinctive to AI.

I don't understand how you don't understand. Trying to recreate someone's internal thoughts and attitudes from looking at their search history is a pale imitation of this. Just the thought experiment of a customs officer asking ChatGPT to summarise your political viewpoints was eye opening to me.

Re: When ChatGPT turns informant

#23
These scenarios are premised with "be in a relationship with someone while you have secrets and they snoop". That may be reality for some people, but it is not exactly a universal scenario.

I'd say the bigger privacy concern is that those chat histories are not just stored on your device - they are stored by the AI platforms as well. I think we've learned our lesson from social media that the platforms will store and use your data for their gain, and your pain. Maybe not today, but over the next few years/decade, as they monetize their platforms ever more?

So I agree that privacy concerns are legit... but this article is looking at the small potatoes where there is a much more terrifying big picture.

Re: When ChatGPT turns informant

#24
post #17

I'm not sure I see how this is meaningfully different than the threat posed by a search engine. It's a very real threat, and I've always done my best to search from a browser context that isn't logged in as a result. But it's not a new threat, or something distinctive to AI.

I think the underlying assumption is that people say very different things to an anthropomorphized (even if in their own parasocial head) chatbot than in other online spaces.

I can see why, mainly because of the parasocial relationship that probably many people tend to form with these things that talk to us like they are humans.

Re: When ChatGPT turns informant

#25

At some point I got curious about how close ChatGPT would get to my Myers-Briggs profile based on my chats over the past year. It accurately got my type.. could be a coincidence of course, but I thought it was quite interesting. It also provided supporting evidence from the many types of different conversations we have had.

Likely coincidence. Myers-Briggs has no scientific validity and is the corporate equivalent of horoscopes in the newspaper . [1] When someone asks for your Myers-Briggs type, give them a zodiac sign. When someone asks for your zodiac sign, give them a Myers-Briggs type. ;) [1]: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/myers-briggs-psychology...

No one has any idea what the types mean other than introvert/extrovert, and it's increasingly clear that even that split is highly dependent on a bunch of contextual stuff— someone who is gregarious and outgoing in one setting may be overwhelmed and need space to themselves in another. And moreover, none of it hard-coded; being "extroverted" is largely a matter of feeling comfortable wielding a set of social skills that are very much learnable— how to read the room, tell a funny story, ask questions that are curious without being invasive, volunteer information about yourself that invites engagement without oversharing, etc.

This stuff is no different that learning public speaking, or partner dance, or how to play ultimate frisbee. You can watch it done well, you can give yourself opportunities to practice, you can even take classes or get 1:1 coaching. And it's also fine to choose not to do those things if your passions are elsewhere, but it's important that growth-mindset people understand that "introvert" is something you choose, not a genetic inevitability.

Re: When ChatGPT turns informant

#27
post #22
post #17

I'm not sure I see how this is meaningfully different than the threat posed by a search engine. It's a very real threat, and I've always done my best to search from a browser context that isn't logged in as a result. But it's not a new threat, or something distinctive to AI.

I don't understand how you don't understand. Trying to recreate someone's internal thoughts and attitudes from looking at their search history is a pale imitation of this. Just the thought experiment of a customs officer asking ChatGPT to summarise your political viewpoints was eye opening to me.

How so? You'd have a very, very good understanding of my political viewpoints from the log of my Google searches. I'm asking sincerely, not simply to push back on you.

Re: When ChatGPT turns informant

#28
post #13

Or… and bear with me on this… They could just read your text message and browser history

In the introductory section: "No trawling through hundreds of pages of chat logs, just a few well-crafted questions, and your deepest secrets are revealed."

I mean.... feed the hundreds of pages of chat logs to the LLM and ask it to spill the tea. Wipe hands on pants.

Re: When ChatGPT turns informant

#29

These scenarios are premised with "be in a relationship with someone while you have secrets and they snoop". That may be reality for some people, but it is not exactly a universal scenario. I'd say the bigger privacy concern is that those chat histories are not just stored on your device - they are stored by the AI platforms as well. I think we've learned our lesson from social media that the platforms will store and…

"Imagine your government wants to learn more about you and subpoenas OpenAI to allow them access to your chat history, and then they use the power of their state apparatus to find out everything you didn't want them to know, as easily as peering into your mind itself."

Re: When ChatGPT turns informant

#30
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The practical short answer is yes, yes it will. It is not privileged communication. It is not considered private since you have left it on a third party server. It is discoverable via legal process to the third parties that retain the chat log. The same goes for communications on any social media or public forum, including discussions here on HN.

Emails on a third-party server are still considered private? That doesn't mean they can't be subpoenaed but they're far from being public.

My informal use of private missed the mark in a strict legalistic sense. We are on the same page about email left on the server being subject to subpoena.

For everyone else, unless you use POP3 to download your email to your own personal device and remove it from the server, the email left on the server is not as protected under US law as emails that are fully downloaded to your device. The later requires a search warrant to acquire without your consent.

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