New York Times Gets Access To OpenAI's ChatGPT Logs After Court Ruling, Allowing Paper To Comb Through Your Personal Search History

"We are talking about billions of chats that are now going to be preserved when they weren't going to be preserved before."

The following report is by Ars Technica (excerpt):

Last week, OpenAI raised objections in court, hoping to overturn a court order requiring the AI company to retain all ChatGPT logs "indefinitely," including deleted and temporary chats.

But Sidney Stein, the US district judge reviewing OpenAI's request, immediately denied OpenAI's objections. He was seemingly unmoved by the company's claims that the order forced OpenAI to abandon "long-standing privacy norms" and weaken privacy protections that users expect based on ChatGPT's terms of service. Rather, Stein suggested that OpenAI's user agreement specified that their data could be retained as part of a legal process, which Stein said is exactly what is happening now.

The order was issued by magistrate judge Ona Wang just days after news organizations, led by The New York Times, requested it. The news plaintiffs claimed the order was urgently needed to preserve potential evidence in their copyright case, alleging that ChatGPT users are likely to delete chats where they attempted to use the chatbot to skirt paywalls to access news content.

A spokesperson told Ars that OpenAI plans to "keep fighting" the order, but the ChatGPT maker seems to have few options left. They could possibly petition the Second Circuit Court of Appeals for a rarely granted emergency order that could intervene to block Wang's order, but the appeals court would have to consider Wang's order an extraordinary abuse of discretion for OpenAI to win that fight.

OpenAI's spokesperson declined to confirm if the company plans to pursue this extreme remedy.

In the meantime, OpenAI is negotiating a process that will allow news plaintiffs to search through the retained data. Perhaps the sooner that process begins, the sooner the data will be deleted. And that possibility puts OpenAI in the difficult position of having to choose between either caving to some data collection to stop retaining data as soon as possible or prolonging the fight over the order and potentially putting more users' private conversations at risk of exposure through litigation or, worse, a data breach.

The clock is ticking, and so far, OpenAI has not provided any official updates since a June 5 blog post detailing which ChatGPT users will be affected.

While it's clear that OpenAI has been and will continue to retain mounds of data, it would be impossible for The New York Times or any news plaintiff to search through all that data.

Instead, only a small sample of the data will likely be accessed, based on keywords that OpenAI and news plaintiffs agree on. That data will remain on OpenAI's servers, where it will be anonymized, and it will likely never be directly produced to plaintiffs.

[…] Regardless of the news plaintiffs' motives, the order sets an alarming precedent, Edelson said. He joined critics suggesting that more AI data may be frozen in the future, potentially affecting even more users as a result of the sweeping order surviving scrutiny in this case. Imagine if litigation one day targets Google's AI search summaries, Edelson suggested.

[…] Instead, the order is "only going to intrude on the privacy of the common people out there," which Edelson said "is really offensive," given that Wang denied two ChatGPT users' panicked request to intervene.

"We are talking about billions of chats that are now going to be preserved when they weren't going to be preserved before," Edelson said, noting that he's input information about his personal medical history into ChatGPT. "People ask for advice about their marriages, express concerns about losing jobs. They say really personal things. And one of the bargains in dealing with OpenAI is that you're allowed to delete your chats and you're allowed to temporary chats."

Read the whole story here.

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

The NYT will be far from the last third-party group that will gain access to these AI models.

Every time something like this happens there is always this confuddled response of, ‘wha- someone stole or sold my data?!’ It’s no different now when the NSA, DHS, CIA, FBI, etc. track and trace every keystroke we make, and then sell our search history to these tech companies and advertisers. It is of course ridiculous, I think we all can agree on that; but there is a saying: "When you lie down with dogs you wake up with fleas."

Proverbs 21:23 Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.

Proverbs 18:7 A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.

Or in this case, your fingertips, too…

People are treating AI like it is this anthropomorphic thing, as if it is a real person, and people are consulting these AI models for everything these days, so people’s deep dark secrets are being collected by these models. Of course, everybody seems to neglect the fact that there is a great God who sees and knows all - but my point is, this is another reason why people need to be weary of these models.

Sadly, free speech is dead. It’s either censored outright, or harvested in data silos, or both.

Artificial Stupidity: OpenAI's Sam Altman Says Telling Chat-GPT "Please" And "Thank You" Is Wasting Millions Of Dollars In Computing Power

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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