Chatbots have become an almost inalienable part of everyday human discourse since OpenAI launched its prized offering—ChatGPT. With the success OpenAI achieved with its flagship AI application, other companies also quickly joined the race and accelerated the development of their respective LLM-based interactive frameworks. Now that the world lies on the cusp of utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning for numerous tasks for both leisure and professional ease, there remain concerns that are yet to be addressed. While those surrounding bias and other drawbacks still involve arduous research, other issues like AI privacy and safety become far more critical since these technologies will invariably be used for high-stakes purposes in the future.
That apart, the privacy dimension also makes its appearance known, given that ChatGPT and other chatbots like Bard do have access to the user’s private information. While this has already been a major concern right from launch, newer findings only make the situation further complex and challenging for developers to address. Since a vast volume of private information is either stored or handled by these chatbots, the lack of clarity concerning the degree of security and the vulnerability to breaches and ulterior actors pose further questions. While firms like OpenAI and Google do reassure users about the safety of their data and that no third party has access to the information, the broader concerns around AI privacy and chatbots remain.
AI Safety and Personal Data: Why Are There Concerns Surrounding ChatGPT AI?
Chatbots collect a variety of personal information and might be capable of predicting personal details.
AI chatbots and other applications are rather effective at predicting patterns and identifying information from disparate sources. Even though this is unquestionably a significant advantage for fields like big data and analytics, malicious actors may also use it to extract personal data from existing databases, including passwords and other types of personal information. A study earlier this year pointed out that an AI application could predict users’ passwords if they typed them while on a Zoom call just by deciphering the sound emerging from their keyboards. While worrying, this might just be one of the many ways hackers and other fraudsters might try to extract sensitive data. AI safety also comes to the forefront due to the collection of a range of information by chatbots like ChatGPT. These include usage logs, location data, any information entered into the interface, device details, and cookies. However, there is little transparency on how this data is collected and used for the interface’s betterment, leading to concerns surrounding AI privacy and security.
In addition to the already existing worries, researchers at ETH Zurich have discovered that chatbots are capable of inferring information about their users to extremely accurate degrees, raising additional privacy concerns. Moreover, the fact that every prompt entered into ChatGPT might offer the underlying language model clues about your identity and personal information is further startling, given that numerous users and commercial operators have deployed the chatbot for several use cases. This also becomes especially relevant for businesses and large organizations that use artificial intelligence in their work structures. Vulnerabilities to jailbreaks and resulting non-adherence to the frameworks also add to the security concerns wrought by ChatGPT. Taking cognizance, government institutions like the US Space Force banned the famed chatbot and other similar AI applications entirely.
What Do Current Findings Mean for Online and AI Privacy?
New practices in AI security might be able to address outstanding concerns over time.
Present consensus on the impact of AI on online privacy and security remains limited, despite leaning to the negative end of the spectrum, and with good reason. Some of the outstanding concerns raised by continuing research that finds vulnerabilities in AI frameworks are listed below.
1. Difficulties in Regulation
Aspects of current chatbots and NLP-based AI applications are prone to producing unpredictable results every once in a while due to phenomena such as hallucinations. This makes it difficult for regulatory authorities to define and zero in on specific aspects of technology and place appropriate statutes.
2. Threats to Cybersecurity
The AI security aspect has been tested in ChatGPT and other similar offerings from other firms; however, it has been found that numerous vulnerabilities seem to persist. These include the use of advanced prompt engineering protocols to create malicious prompts and commands to coerce the chatbot to go over its guardrails. Apart from these attacks, AI chatbots might also remain vulnerable to sophisticated threats.
3. Extensive Data Collection
Since most language models are either built entirely on or on parts of extensive web crawls, a wealth of personal information is found openly on the internet. This is especially true of social media, where names, photographs, voice recordings, and videos are open to public view on numerous individuals’ profiles as well as public groups. The usage and assimilation of this data are not completely understood.
4. Intellectual Property Theft
As an extension of the previous concern, chatbots tend to draw heavily from online content and, invariably, this sometimes also entails copyrighted material. Due to its use of copyrighted books, artwork, news articles, and scientific papers, this has put numerous chatbots, including ChatGPT, in a pickle. This has also sparked debates around the nature of AI and copyright, which continues to remain a key challenge in artificial intelligence.
How Can ChatGPT Be Secured?
The future of chatbots remains suspended in the balance due to security concerns that have emerged recently.
While OpenAI does focus heavily on securing its language models and chatbots from attacks, several other elements can also be integrated into existing frameworks to create more robust AI security measures. In addition to the existing filtering of personal information, bug bounty programs, and vulnerability assessments, consistent monitoring and auditing of the chatbot’s logs and interactions would help developers identify key challenges and deficiencies in the chatbot’s security framework. User education and training, along with strict adherence to responsible AI protocols, can also bring significant changes to the prevailing privacy concerns and security frameworks. Regardless, innovations, especially in the digital space, take time to secure, and it is expected that vast LLMs and their associated chatbots will also require consistent efforts over a long time to reinforce apt AI privacy and security measures.
FAQs
1. Can ChatGPT leak my personal data?
While there are security measures in place to prevent the breach of personal information, studies have found that chatbots can accurately predict user details just by analyzing the prompts entered. Moreover, jailbreaks and other security vulnerabilities also pose a threat to user data, albeit indirectly.
2. Does ChatGPT use personal data?
Yes, ChatGPT collects user information like usage logs, location data, interactions, and phone numbers for verification purposes. The data is used to enhance the language model and better understand the way AI behaves when presented with different prompts.
3. What is the field of AI safety?
AI safety focuses on preventing the misuse and other harmful outcomes of artificial intelligence. Securing AI frameworks and addressing their vulnerabilities becomes a key aspect of this domain.