Artificial intelligence used to be akin to fantasy—something that we gawked at in sci-fi movies set hundreds of years in the future. Nowadays, we barely blink when confronted with myriad types of AI in our everyday lives: atranslator tool helping order lunch in another languagewhile on vacation, a retail chatbot processing a return,robot vacuums mapping our homes, Google maps suggesting an alternative route to avoid traffic from an accident.
One common thread among these AI is that they’re all collecting massive amounts of data, which can feel like an artificial intelligence invasion of privacy. But data is what helps drive AI forward, continue to learn, and evolve to where it is today. Depending on what kind of AI you’re interacting with, you could be handing over loads of your personal information to fuel that evolution.
One of the most buzz worthy tools of the moment isChatGPT(Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer), the AI-driven conversational chatbot created by US-based artificial intelligence company OpenAI. ChatGPT can create stories, give relationship advice, prepare a resume and cover letter, answer complex questions, summarize articles, write original songs, and so much more that can blow your mind. It’s at the center of a prevalent conversation that most of us have had: Is AI going to take over the world?
The reality is that AI like ChatGPT has the potential to take over jobs—which ones, exactly, are up for debate—but there is another more immediate concern to consider. How much of our personal data is AI storing, and what is it doing with it? Sentient robots enslaving humankind may be great fodder for conversation, but in reality, artificial intelligence privacy issues are what we should be talking about.
Digital privacy and artificial intelligence privacy concerns
When we talk about digital privacy, it’s often related to identity theft and data breaches—hackers stealing credit card numbers, phishing schemes to get your passwords, and so forth. But what about the personal data that we’re choosing to give away? Artificial intelligence data privacy is an emerging issue as AI becomes more prominent and widespread.
In April 2023, ChatGPT introduced the ability to turn off chat history—so that your conversations won’t be used to train and improve its models—as an alternative to its existing opt-out process. “When chat history is disabled,” says OpenAI, “we will retain new conversations for 30 days and review them only when needed to monitor for abuse, before permanently deleting.” Unless you’ve been hypervigilant at monitoring the policies with every type of technology that you encounter, chances are you’ve fed personal data into one AI or another without knowing the potential outcomes.
ChatGPT is just one popular example of AI that collects data. Another frequently used AI tool is AI face and art generators. Social media platforms have been flooded with these types of AI, urging you and your friends to upload your selfies or download an app to create cool avatars with your likeness. But who owns the final image and what can it be used for? Most current laws can’t even agree on who owns AI-created art. Depending on the company’s privacy policy, even the original images that you upload into an AI could then be used for the company’s business purposes or sold to third parties, sending your data much further than you anticipated.
We’ve become accustomed to punching in our full names and email addresses, letting websites access our geolocation, and using facial-recognition software, so giving hyper-intelligent AI our photos, asking it to save our home address for the future, or asking a chatbot for help in our personal life doesn’t feel like a stretch. The more commonplace these things are, the more complacent we become.
It’s important to recognize that AI is not evil, it just needs to be approached with caution and vigilance when your personal information is involved. And when you’re using it for business purposes or for your employer, even more diligence is required. When it comes to artificial intelligence and data privacy, it’s always a good idea to play it safe.
Is your personal data online?
Have you ever wondered how much of your data is in the hands of third parties, such as data brokers, or worse, has been stolen in data breaches? Just because your data hasn’t been explicitly sold, doesn’t mean that it’s guaranteed to be safe. Few of us could recall every AI interaction we’ve had and what kind of information we surrendered or gave access to. If you’re wondering how much and what type of your personal information is being stored, shared, or sold, online-privacy serviceIncognican find your data and wipe it from the internet.
How to protect your personal data online
With an Incogni subscription, you can mitigate the risk of identity theft and take control of your data by having it deleted from the internet and data-broker databases. Incogni users can monitor the entire process—potential databases found, requests sent, requests completed—to see where their data is and when it is deleted. If you’re concerned or curious about your personal data, check out Incogni’s services today for 50% off a one-year subscription.
