AI is a bigger threat to data privacy than social media | Latest Tech News
We’re freaked out by how tailor-made our commercials on Instagram are, or how a lot Pinterest appears to anticipate our inside design style — and yet we continue to spoon-feed AI chatbots heaping piles of intensely personal info.
AI corporations are now in possession of heaps of personal info that social media giants may only dream of. We aren’t just setting ourselves up for hyper-targeted advertisements. We’re also making ourselves susceptible to hacks and even blackmail.
ChatGPT alone receives 3 billion messages from customers daily. Every time we ask a bot for advice, vent to it, or emote at it, we’re contributing to a treasure trove of hyper-personal info, even though we should always know better.
ChatGPT alone receives 3 billion messages a day from customers. Gado via Getty Images
Considerable proportions of Americans who use AI say they flip to it for frighteningly personal duties: 20% for medical advice, 20% for diet info, 10% for emotional assist, and 4% for companionship. Those are just self-reported numbers; data from OpenAI itself is even more revealing.
Their inner analysis of 1.1 million messages despatched in 2025 discovered that 73% of chats weren’t work associated. Eight-point-five % of messages have been in search of customized how-to advice, 5.7% health, fitness, magnificence, or self-care, 5.3% have been thought of “self-expression,” and 1.9% personal reflection or speaking about relationships.
Potential for rogue bots deciding they may exploit the data of customers isn’t distant. During a 2025 take a look at, one Anthropic model confirmed a real knack for blackmail. Facing the fictional threat of being disconnected, the model went after a faux govt and threatened to expose e mail evidence of his marital affair unless he intervened to stop the shutdown.
OpenAI has branched out into promoting, boasting an skill to goal customers when they’re making choices. REUTERS
We’re caught in a fear-versus-behavior paradox. Half of US adults use AI as of this 12 months, and a quarter use it every day. And yet 7 in 10 Americans admit they imagine utilizing AI will make their data less secure.
Perhaps we’re willingly baring it all to Big Tech because we’ve turn out to be so dependent on their merchandise. But is the risk actually definitely worth the reward? What occurs if your AI bot of alternative begins harvesting data for its makers to promote? What if a major AI company will get hacked? Or a rogue bot begins blackmailing customers?
What if insurance coverage corporations start mining your chatbot conversations about medical symptoms or your smoking behavior? Or a loan supplier decides they’d like to know what you say about your personal funds when only a robot is around?
And what if your personal chat logs end up getting used as evidence in court? That risk isn’t even hypothetical. Law enforcement, supplied they’ve a warrant, can access your AI chat logs and conversations as readily as your Google searches.
Alex Karp said in a July CNBC interview that we need to demand solutions about privacy from AI corporations. AFP via Getty Images
Already, AI chat logs have been used as evidence in homicide investigations, like in the case of former NFL participant Darron Lee who allegedly requested a bot to help cowl up his girlfriend’s death. Criminals are studying the arduous manner that AI isn’t a black box, including one Missouri scholar who allegedly requested AI “how f—ed am I bro” while confessing in element to vandalizing automobiles.
Regular customers of chatbots appear to be actually or willfully ignorant of the privacy considerations, but Silicon Valley leaders definitely aren’t.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp demanded in a July CNBC interview that big AI companies reply the beautiful basic questions: “Who owns the data? Where is it cached? Are the prompts secure?”
We ought to all demand solutions to these questions before typing away into a robot’s database — and yet we keep volunteering our personal info in any case, because it’s handy.
During a take a look at, one Anthropic model blackmailed a fictional govt over an affair. Gado via Getty Images
But the most regarding dimension of our privacy nightmare is how a lot info AI corporations have about their customers.
For occasion, Anthropic said in their September 2026 threat intelligence report that they recognized and banned customers who have been utilizing their AI for the aim of fraud, scams, cyberattacks, weapons development, and affect operations.
While, of course, we should always all be glad that those customers have been stopped, the fact that they’ve been singled out is proof that your conversations with AI aren’t merely going into a digital void. In fact, they’re going into a very helpful pile being accessed by law enforcement and leveraged by corporations for revenue.
OpenAI is already actively developing an promoting arm of their business. On their web site, they excitedly inform potential advertisers that they’ll have the ability to “reach people in moments that matter,” because “people come to ChatGPT… [to] make decisions.”
Artificial intelligence platforms are amassing big quantities of data about billions of people. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
“Go beyond keywords with richer context signals,” the company pitched on their touchdown web page for advertisers. “In ChatGPT, people share richer context, enabling advertising that is more relevant, personalized, and useful.”
Of course, OpenAI has careworn that they “keep your conversations with ChatGPT private from advertisers” and “never sell your data to advertisers.” The company referred The Post to public statements assuring customers that they’ll opt-out of customized advertisements.
But AI corporations’ pivot into the promoting business represents a new frontier in surveillance capitalism. We’re shifting past the period when social media corporations predicted what you’d like based on your clicks. Now, we’re telling Big Tech our preferences, our fears, our desires, our needs and our secrets and techniques.
AI has turn out to be our stylist, our pal, our confidant, our therapist, even our doctor — and we’re avoiding grappling with what that actually means for our privacy, let alone our humanity.
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