OpenAI CEO's Warning to Youth: Don't Use ChatGPT as a Therapist

Using AI tools as a therapist has become popular among young people. However, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, there are risks involved.

By using ChatGPT as a therapist, you can avoid long waiting times and expensive bills, which has made it popular, especially among the youth. Emelie Grönholm, 29, told Svenska Dagbladet that she has met several different therapists but only connected with the chatbot.

– I can really say anything without shame or holding back. There's no one there to judge me. It makes me feel completely safe, she says.

But according to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, there are significant risks with AI therapy. ChatGPT does not have the confidentiality obligations that real therapists do, writes SvD.

– If you talk to ChatGPT about your most sensitive issues, and it later becomes a legal matter or similar, we may be required to disclose the information. I think that's a skewed situation, he says in an interview with podcaster Theo Von.

"Urgent"

In June, OpenAI announced that even users of the free service now have access to their previous conversations with the chatbot. This improves the quality of responses but also means that the information is stored. This means that even if a user deletes a chat, it is still saved in the system's archive.

In May, a court in New York decided that ChatGPT must save all chats, even those users have tried to delete. The background includes a lawsuit by the New York Times against OpenAI, demanding that chats be archived to prove whether the AI model is trained on their articles, according to several media outlets.

Sam Altman believes it is urgent to address privacy issues.

– I think it's entirely reasonable to want clarity on privacy before using it extensively. Legal clarity, he tells Theo Von.