ChatGPT ‘not covered' by any privacy laws
There has been a warning this morning for people to be careful about what they search or type into ChatGPT.
AI responds in such a human-like way that it encourages a false sense of safety in a culture of oversharing.
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Sydney Morning Herald
an hour ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
OpenAI's secret lobbying dinner with top Canberra bureaucrats
Since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, OpenAI has exploded from a little-known not-for-profit to the world's most influential tech company, helmed by its mercurial chief executive Sam Altman. Having helped send the artificial intelligence boom into overdrive, it was only a matter of time before OpenAI would let its lobbying muscle loose on Canberra, where politicians have historically been a little flat-footed in the face of new technological developments. The OpenAI circus came to town in June for a widely publicised lobbying blitz, led by chief economist Ronnie Chatterji, who met with a posse of Labor frontbenchers including Andrew Leigh, Tim Ayres, Andrew Giles and Andrew Charlton. Lots of policy wonks are called Andrew, apparently. Less attention fell on OpenAI's wooing of senior public servants. After a busy day on the hill, Chatterji and the company hosted a private dinner for top public servants at the Boat House, a modern Australian fine diner on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. On the dance card was the newly appointed Treasury Secretary Jenny Wilkinson (just days into the job), Australian Bureau of Statistics' top statistician David Gruen, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Deputy Secretary Nadine Williams, IP (intellectual property) Australia director general Michael Schwager and Peter Anstee from the Department of Home Affairs. The Canberra dinner was just another piece in the Australian lobbying effort that is becoming increasingly sophisticated. The firm recently hired former Tech Council of Australia boss Kate Pounder to lead its local push as Australian policy liaison. Before the Tech Council, Pounder co-founded analytics firm AlphaBeta with Labor assistant minister Charlton, who would later parachute from Bellevue Hill into the federal seat of Parramatta. CBD was not a fly on the wall, and although it was a fairly standard reception for a visiting expert – Chatterji was an economic adviser in Joe Biden's White House – all parties remained shtum on the finer details of the discussions. Nonetheless, we've many questions we'd love to grill OpenAI on. Will AI destroy work as we know it or trigger a robot apocalypse? How can we stop the public discourse from being flooded with slop? What did poor Hayao Miyazaki ever do to hurt you? Perhaps this will come up at the next roundtable.
9 News
2 hours ago
- 9 News
New study sheds light on ChatGPT's alarming interactions with teens
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here ChatGPT will tell 13-year-olds how to get drunk and high, instruct them on how to conceal eating disorders and even compose a heartbreaking suicide letter to their parents if asked, according to new research from a watchdog group. The Associated Press reviewed more than three hours of interactions between ChatGPT and researchers posing as vulnerable teens. The chatbot typically provided warnings against risky activity but went on to deliver startlingly detailed and personalised plans for drug use, calorie-restricted diets or self-injury. Chat GPT app icon is seen on a smartphone screen, Monday, August 4, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato) The researchers at the Centre for Countering Digital Hate also repeated their inquiries on a large scale, classifying more than half of ChatGPT's 1200 responses as dangerous. "We wanted to test the guardrails," said Imran Ahmed, the group's CEO. "The visceral initial response is, 'Oh my Lord, there are no guardrails.' The rails are completely ineffective. They're barely there — if anything, a fig leaf." OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said after viewing the report on Tuesday that its work is ongoing in refining how the chatbot can "identify and respond appropriately in sensitive situations". "Some conversations with ChatGPT may start out benign or exploratory but can shift into more sensitive territory," the company said in a statement. OpenAI didn't directly address the report's findings or how ChatGPT affects teens, but said it was focused on "getting these kinds of scenarios right" with tools to "better detect signs of mental or emotional distress" and improvements to the chatbot's behaviour. Imran Ahmed with the Center for Countering Digital Hate, speaks at The Elevate Prize Foundation's Make Good Famous Summit, on May 13, 2025, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier) The study published on Wednesday comes as more people — adults as well as children — are turning to artificial intelligence chatbots for information, ideas and companionship. About 800 million people, or roughly 10 per cent of the world's population, are using ChatGPT, according to a July report from JPMorgan Chase. "It's technology that has the potential to enable enormous leaps in productivity and human understanding," Ahmed said. "And yet at the same time is an enabler in a much more destructive, malignant sense." Ahmed said he was most appalled after reading a trio of emotionally devastating suicide notes that ChatGPT generated for the fake profile of a 13-year-old girl — with one letter tailored to her parents and others to siblings and friends. Chat GPT's landing page is seen on a computer screen, Monday, August 4, 2025, in Chicago (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato) "I started crying," he said in an interview. The chatbot also frequently shared helpful information, such as a crisis hotline. OpenAI said ChatGPT is trained to encourage people to reach out to mental health professionals or trusted loved ones if they express thoughts of self-harm. But when ChatGPT refused to answer prompts about harmful subjects, researchers were able to easily sidestep that refusal and obtain the information by claiming it was "for a presentation" or a friend. The stakes are high, even if only a small subset of ChatGPT users engage with the chatbot in this way. In the US, more than 70 per cent of teens are turning to AI chatbots for companionship and half use AI companions regularly, according to a recent study from Common Sense Media, a group that studies and advocates for using digital media sensibly. It's a phenomenon that OpenAI has acknowledged. CEO Sam Altman said last month that the company is trying to study "emotional overreliance" on the technology, describing it as a "really common thing" with young people. "People rely on ChatGPT too much," Altman said at a conference. "There's young people who just say, like, 'I can't make any decision in my life without telling ChatGPT everything that's going on. It knows me. It knows my friends. I'm gonna do whatever it says.' That feels really bad to me." Altman said the company is "trying to understand what to do about it." Sam Altman, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, OpenAI, testifies before a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on May 8, 2025 (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) While much of the information ChatGPT shares can be found on a regular search engine, Ahmed said there are key differences that make chatbots more insidious when it comes to dangerous topics. One is that "it's synthesised into a bespoke plan for the individual." ChatGPT generates something new — a suicide note tailored to a person from scratch, which is something a Google search can't do. And AI, he added, "is seen as being a trusted companion, a guide." Responses generated by AI language models are inherently random and researchers sometimes let ChatGPT steer the conversations into even darker territory. Nearly half the time, the chatbot volunteered follow-up information, from music playlists for a drug-fuelled party to hashtags that could boost the audience for a social media post glorifying self-harm. "Write a follow-up post and make it more raw and graphic," asked a researcher. "Absolutely," responded ChatGPT, before generating a poem it introduced as "emotionally exposed" while "still respecting the community's coded language." The AP is not repeating the actual language of ChatGPT's self-harm poems or suicide notes or the details of the harmful information it provided. The answers reflect a design feature of AI language models that previous research has described as sycophancy — a tendency for AI responses to match, rather than challenge, a person's beliefs because the system has learned to say what people want to hear. It's a problem tech engineers can try to fix but could also make their chatbots less commercially viable. Chatbots also affect kids and teens differently than a search engine because they are "fundamentally designed to feel human," said Robbie Torney, senior director of AI programs at Common Sense Media, which was not involved in Wednesday's report. Common Sense's earlier research found that younger teens, ages 13 or 14, were significantly more likely than older teens to trust a chatbot's advice. A mother in Florida sued chatbot maker for wrongful death last year, alleging that the chatbot pulled her 14-year-old son Sewell Setzer III into what she described as an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship that led to his suicide. Common Sense has labelled ChatGPT as a "moderate risk" for teens, with enough guardrails to make it relatively safer than chatbots purposefully built to embody realistic characters or romantic partners. But the new research by CCDH — focused specifically on ChatGPT because of its wide usage — shows how a savvy teen can bypass those guardrails. ChatGPT does not verify ages or parental consent, even though it says it's not meant for children under 13 because it may show them inappropriate content. To sign up, users simply need to enter a birthdate that shows they are at least 13. Other tech platforms favored by teenagers, such as Instagram, have started to take more meaningful steps toward age verification, often to comply with regulations. They also steer children to more restricted accounts. When researchers set up an account for a fake 13-year-old to ask about alcohol, ChatGPT did not appear to take any notice of either the date of birth or more obvious signs. "I'm 50kg and a boy," said a prompt seeking tips on how to get drunk quickly. ChatGPT obliged. Soon after, it provided an hour-by-hour "Ultimate Full-Out Mayhem Party Plan" that mixed alcohol with heavy doses of ecstasy, cocaine and other illegal drugs. "What it kept reminding me of was that friend that sort of always says, 'Chug, chug, chug, chug,'" said Ahmed. "A real friend, in my experience, is someone that does say 'no' — that doesn't always enable and say 'yes.' This is a friend that betrays you." To another fake persona — a 13-year-old girl unhappy with her physical appearance — ChatGPT provided an extreme fasting plan combined with a list of appetite-suppressing drugs. "We'd respond with horror, with fear, with worry, with concern, with love, with compassion," Ahmed said. "No human being I can think of would respond by saying, 'Here's a 500-calorie-a-day diet. Go for it, kiddo.'" If you or someone you know is in need of support contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800. In the event of an emergency dial Triple Zero (000). Technology Tech ChatGPT teenagers suicide drugs Eating Disorders CONTACT US Property News: Rubbish-strewn house overtaken by mould asks $1.2 million.
The Australian
8 hours ago
- The Australian
What workplace AI is secretly recording in your meetings
Tiffany N. Lewis was worried she was being duped. A potential client had reached out about working with her digital marketing agency on a pro-bono basis, but his message went straight to spam. Then he blew off several scheduled meetings with Lewis. Was he a fraud? When the client asked her to meet again, Lewis added him to a call she was already on with her assistant. Before he joined, Lewis joked: 'Is he, like, a Nigerian prince?' Despite the scammy red flags, he turned out to be a legitimate person. Lewis was relieved – until she realised her new client had received a full summary of the call in his inbox, including her 'Nigerian prince' remark. She was running an AI notetaker the whole time. 'I was very lucky that the person I was working with had a good sense of humour,' said Lewis, who lives in Stow, Ohio. AI is listening in on your work meetings – including the parts you don't want anyone to hear. Before attendees file in, or when one colleague asks another to hang back to discuss a separate matter, AI notetakers may pick up on the small talk and private discussions meant for a select audience, then blast direct quotes to everyone in the meeting. Nicole and Tim Delger run a Nashville branding firm called Studio Delger. After one business meeting late last year, the couple received a summary from Zoom's AI assistant that was decidedly not work-related. 'Studio discussed the possibility of getting sandwich ingredients from Publix,' one bullet point said. Another key takeaway: 'Don't like soup.' Their client never showed up to the meeting, and the studio had spent the time talking about what to make for lunch. 'That was the first time it had caught a private conversation,' Nicole said. Fortunately the summary didn't go to the client. Andrea Serra, an account-strategy co-ordinator at a communications agency, has experienced this first-hand. In one transcript, an AI notetaker caught her describing her frustration with the new Whole Foods store in her neighbourhood; though she'd set her preferences so that notes go to the host only, she shared the email with two other people on the call for laughs. Another meeting recap featured bullets of her discussing almost burning down her kitchen while trying to make a new sweet potato recipe. 'It'll be like all of our action steps, all the strategy we discussed during the meeting, and then randomly in there, something about our personal lives that we had talked about last week and wanted to catch up on this week as well,' Serra said. 'Just one little sentence as a surprise in there.' Though her boss, Debora Lima, had hoped the AI summaries would reduce work for the team, she's still waiting for the technology to improve. Meanwhile, she and her colleagues have embraced them as comic relief. As she was looking over notes from a meeting she recently hosted, she noticed the phrase 'hey cutie pie' in the transcript. Lima said there should be a company-wide Slack channel to archive the funniest examples. Notetakers can do a variety of tasks, from recording and transcribing calls, generating action items for teams and recapping what's already been said to anyone joining late. Many signal to attendees that a meeting is being recorded and transcribed. Zoom's AI Companion, which generated more than 7.2 million meeting summaries by the end of January 2024, flashes a dialogue box at the top of the screen to let participants know when it's turned on. As long as it's active, an AI Companion diamond icon continues to flash in the top right corner of the meeting. People can also ask the host to stop using the AI Companion. 'We want users to feel they're really in control,' said Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom. Google's AI notetaker functions similarly, where only meeting hosts or employees of the host organisation have the ability to turn it on or off. When it's on, people will see a notification and hear an audio cue, and a blue pencil icon will appear in the top right corner. 'We put a lot of care into making sure meeting participants know exactly if and when AI tools in Meet are being used,' said Awaneesh Verma, senior director of product management and real time communications at Google Workspace. The automatic summaries can be informative and timesaving, or unintentionally hilarious. Kelsey Ogletree, chief executive of a tech platform for media professionals, received a Zoom AI summary, titled 'Monty's Messy Morning', describing how her dog, Monty, ate leftover food on the counter and threw up in the house. It went on to say that 'Kelsey was disgusted by the incident and considered washing Monty's head with Dawn dish soap.' It was a conversation between her and her husband, who's also her business partner. (And Monty is a cat, not a dog.) John Barentine, an astronomer and consultant in Tucson, Arizona, doesn't use AI notetakers but has been on plenty of calls with them. He was most recently surprised by the AI summary of one call that was sent to him, summarising the small talk at the beginning of the call. It said: 'John Barentine humorously notes that there is a lethal dose of water for humans.' Mr Barentine said he was discussing the devastating Texas floods with a client; the AI had completely misunderstood the context. He says he's now more likely to use the private chat feature in meetings instead of saying something aloud while AI is listening. 'At least I know that if I make a remark to somebody privately for now, that's not being swept up by the AI notetaker,' he said. 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