OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has raised concerns over the lack of legal protections for conversations held with ChatGPT, warning that user interactions with the AI tool could potentially be used as evidence in legal proceedings.
Speaking on This Past Weekend podcast hosted by comedian Theo Von, Altman expressed alarm at the growing tendency of users—especially young people—to share deeply personal and sensitive information with ChatGPT, often treating it as a form of emotional support.
“People talk about the most personal stuff in their lives to ChatGPT,” he said. “Young people especially use it as a therapist, a life coach—sharing relationship problems and asking for advice.”
However, Altman emphasized that, unlike conversations with medical, legal, or mental health professionals, discussions with ChatGPT are not protected under confidentiality laws.
“If you talk to a therapist or a lawyer or a doctor about those problems, there’s legal privilege,” he explained. “But we haven’t figured that out yet for conversations with AI.”
He warned that in the event of legal disputes, user conversations with ChatGPT could be subject to subpoenas or disclosure orders. “If there’s a lawsuit or whatever, we could be required to produce that. And that’s a real problem,” he said.
Altman called for urgent policy intervention to address the privacy gap. “I think we should have the same concept of privacy for your conversations with AI that we do with a therapist,” he said. “No one had to think about that even a year ago.”
