Never Use ChatGPT for These 11 Things
While I'm a fan, I also know the limitations of ChatGPT, and you should too, whether you're a newbie or an expert. It's fun for trying new recipes, learning a foreign language or planning a vacation, but you don't want to give ChatGPT carte blanche in your life. It's not great at everything -- in fact, it can be downright sketchy at a lot of things.
ChatGPT sometimes hallucinates information and passes it off as fact, and it may not always have up-to-date information. It's incredibly confident, even when it's straight up wrong. (The same can be said about other generative AI tools, too, of course.)
That matters the higher the stakes get, like when taxes, medical bills, court dates or bank balances enter the chat. If you're unsure about when turning to ChatGPT might be risky, here are 11 scenarios when you should put down the AI and choose another option. Don't use ChatGPT for any of the following.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, the parent company of CNET, in April filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
1. Diagnosing physical health issues
I've definitely fed ChatGPT my symptoms out of curiosity, but the answers that come back can read like your worst nightmare. As you pore over potential diagnoses, you could swing from dehydration and the flu to some type of cancer. I have a lump on my chest and entered that information into ChatGPT. Lo and behold, it told me I may have cancer. In fact, I have a lipoma, which is not cancerous and occurs in 1 in every 1,000 people. My licensed doctor told me that.
I'm not saying there are no good uses of ChatGPT for health: It can help you draft questions for your next appointment, translate medical jargon and organize a symptom timeline so you can walk in better prepared. And that could help make doctor visits less overwhelming. However, AI can't order labs or examine you, and it definitely doesn't carry malpractice insurance. Know its limits.
2. Taking care of your mental health
ChatGPT can offer grounding techniques, sure, but it can't pick up the phone when you're in real trouble with your mental health. I know some people use ChatGPT as a substitute therapist. CNET's Corin Cesaric found it mildly helpful for working through grief, as long as she kept its limits front of mind. But as someone who has a very real, very human therapist, I can tell you that ChatGPT is still really only a pale imitation at best, and incredibly risky at worst.
ChatpGPT doesn't have lived experience, can't read your body language or tone, and has zero capacity for genuine empathy. It can only simulate it. A licensed therapist operates under legal mandates and professional codes that protect you from harm. ChatGPT doesn't. Its advice can misfire, overlook red flags or unintentionally reinforce biases baked into its training data. Leave the deeper work — the hard, messy, human work — to an actual human who is trained to properly handle it. If you or someone you love is in crisis, please dial 988 in the US, or your local hotline.
3. Making immediate safety decisions
If your carbon-monoxide alarm starts chirping, please don't open ChatGPT and ask it if you're in real danger. I'd go outside first and ask questions later. Large language models can't smell gas, detect smoke or dispatch an emergency crew. In a crisis, every second you spend typing is a second you're not evacuating or dialing 911. ChatGPT can only work with the scraps of info you feed it, and in an emergency, it may be too little and too late. So treat your chatbot as a postincident explainer, never a first responder.
4. Getting personalized financial or tax planning
ChatGPT can explain what an ETF is, but it doesn't know your debt-to-income ratio, state tax bracket, filing status, deductions, retirement goals or risk appetite. Because its training data may stop short of the current tax year, and of the latest rate hikes, its guidance may well be stale when you hit enter.
I have friends who dump their 1099 totals into ChatGPT for a DIY return. The chatbot simply can't replace a CPA who can catch a hidden deduction worth a few hundred dollars or flag a mistake that could cost you thousands. When real money, filing deadlines, and IRS penalties are on the line, call a professional, not AI. Also, be aware that anything you share with an AI chatbot will probably become part of its training data, and that includes your income, your Social Security number and your bank routing information.
5. Dealing with confidential or regulated data
As a tech journalist, I see embargoes land in my inbox every day, but I've never thought about tossing any of these press releases into ChatGPT to get a summary or further explanation. That's because if I did, that text would leave my control and land on a third-party server outside the guardrails of my nondiscloure agreement.
The same risk applies to client contracts, medical charts or anything covered by the California Consumer Privacy Act, HIPAA, the GDPR or plain old trade-secret law. It applies to your income taxes, birth certificate, driver's license and passport. Once sensitive information is in the prompt window, you can't guarantee where it's stored, who can review it internally or whether it may be used to train future models. ChatGPT also isn't immune to hackers and security threats. If you wouldn't paste it into a public Slack channel, don't paste it into ChatGPT.
6. Doing anything illegal
This one is self-explanatory.
7. Cheating on schoolwork
I'd be lying if I said I never cheated on my exams. In high school, I used my first-generation iPod Touch to sneak a peek at a few cumbersome equations I had difficulty memorizing in AP calculus, a stunt I'm not particularly proud of. But with AI, the scale of modern cheating makes that look remarkably tame.
Turnitin and similar detectors are getting better at spotting AI-generated prose every semester, and professors can already hear "ChatGPT voice" a mile away (thanks for ruining my beloved em dash). Suspension, expulsion and getting your license revoked are real risks. It's best to use ChatGPT as a study buddy, not a ghostwriter. You're also just cheating yourself out of an education if you have ChatGPT do the work for you.
8. Monitoring information and breaking news
Since OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT Search in late 2024 (and opened it to everyone in February 2025), the chatbot can fetch fresh web pages, stock quotes, gas prices, sports scores and other real-time numbers the moment you ask, complete with clickable citations so you can verify the source. However, it won't stream continual updates on its own. Every refresh needs a new prompt, so when speed is critical, live data feeds, official press releases, news sites, push alerts and streaming coverage are still your best bet.
9. Gambling
I've actually had luck with ChatGPT and hitting a three-way parlay during the NCAA men's basketball championship, but I would never recommend it to anyone. I've seen ChatGPT hallucinate and provide incorrect information on player statistics, misreported injuries and win-loss records. I only cashed out because I double-checked every claim against real-time odds, and even then I got lucky. ChatGPT can't see tomorrow's box score, so don't rely on it solely to get you that win.
10. Drafting a will or other legally binding contract
ChatGPT is great for breaking down basic concepts. If you want to know more about a revocable living trust, ask away. However, the moment you ask it to draft actual legal text, you're rolling the dice. Estate and family-law rules vary by state, and sometimes even by county, so skipping a witness signature or omitting the notarization clause can get your whole document tossed. Let ChatGPT help you build a checklist of questions for your lawyer, then pay that lawyer to turn that checklist into a document that stands up in court.
11. Making art
This isn't an objective truth, just my own opinion, but I don't believe AI should be used to create art. I'm not anti-artifical intelligence by any means. I use ChatGPT for brainstorming new ideas and help with my headlines, but that's supplementation, not substitution. By all means, use ChatGPT, but please don't use it to make art that you then pass off as your own. It's kind of gross.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
31 Women Just Shared The Unusual And Unexplainable Body Quirks They've Learned To Live With, And Hold Up, I Have A Few Of These...
Reddit user Conscious_Can3226 recently asked the r/AskWomenOver30 community, "What's a weird thing your body does that you've never heard of anyone else experiencing?" Some of the responses were super shocking! But body does them too! Wild. Check it out: 1."I always know my period is coming because my right upper leg feels extremely nauseous. That makes zero sense, but I can't find a better way to describe the feeling than severe nausea in my leg." —bubble-tea-mouse 2."I hear music when I'm falling asleep every single night. Sometimes it's rock, sometimes country, sometimes classical. No, there aren't any radios playing anywhere in our home or our neighbors' homes. It happens literally wherever I am and am falling asleep." —Cootieface123 3."My cheeks sweat when I eat apples." —sqqueen2 4."I cry when I pee. It's completely involuntary/not emotion-driven. Tears just start streaming down my face as soon as I start. Mainly, if I hold my bladder too long." —Froggy_froggy_ Related: 5."Every time I was pregnant, my nipples would behave like they had Raynaud's disease. They would turn black and then start turning white at the tip. I would have to take all my clothes off and just have them in warm water. I would be walking around and feel a chill, and my nipples would get hard and start this reaction that felt like someone was holding a hot iron to the tips. Went away immediately at birth. It was once the first symptom I felt. I knew I was pregnant because my nipples burned." —TryingKindness 6."I get incredibly nauseous right before I sneeze. Like I think I'm gonna puke, and right when I get to the point where I'm heading to the bathroom, I sneeze and it's like I'm fine. I didn't develop this until after I gave birth." —ValiumKnight 7."My right elbow hurts if I eat McDonald's. Never my left elbow or any other fast food." —Next_Firefighter7605 8."Instead of brain freeze, I get spine freeze. The location is about two inches down from the top of my sternum, only on the inner side of my spine." —coocooforcoconut 9."I get nauseous if the inside of my belly button is touched. People interpret that to mean I'm ticklish, but I get a full-body reaction!" —OnCloud1989 10."My eyes squeak when I rub them." —letmebeyourmummy 11."I have to crap every time I go shopping." —orthodoxyma Related: 12."Some people have a gene that makes cilantro taste like soap. I have a gene that makes cucumbers taste rancid, like bad fish." —HeckThattt 13."Since having COVID, I can taste metal when I hold some in my hand, like a fork or a metal cup. I hate it!" —sherbertmelipnos 14."If you tickle my left elbow, I can feel it in my inner ear." —jane-be-jane 15."My throat always gets sore for a couple of days before my period, like clockwork." —celestialism 16."The base of my skull makes fizzy popping noises when I'm super hungry. I've looked it up and apparently it's a thing, but it doesn't happen to anybody I've ever mentioned it to." —mirrorherb Related: 17."If I have a moment of genuine connection with another person, I get tingly over the entirety of my scalp. It's pretty cool. This can also happen when I see a particularly poignant video or hear a song that evokes a lot of emotion." —sittinginthesunshine 18."My teeth hurt when I hear sounds I don't like. One of my biggest triggers is someone running their finger along paper." —Selfeffacingbarbie 19."Sometimes when I pinch my skin in one place, I can feel it in a different place too. For example, I pinched my skin above my right knee, and I've felt it above my right elbow. It's more prominent before my period." —mrsduckie 20."When my throat is itchy, I get an itch in my lower abdomen too, with the exact same sensation and intensity of the itch." —randombubble8272 21."My eyes start watering whenever anyone describes something supernatural (ghosts, alien encounters, or unexplained goings on). It's like I'm crying, but without the emotion or the lump in the throat. I just start tearing up." —batterscraps 22."I have one tooth that randomly 'itches.' There's nothing wrong with the tooth or gum there. Itching is the best way I can describe it. It's super weird and annoying. I don't know what causes it. I brush, floss, and use mouthwash. Just got good remarks from my dentist last month, so I don't get it. When I tell my husband or friends about it, they have no idea what I mean or what I'm describing." —DismalPrint5951 23."When I go to other people's houses, if I'm not 100% comfortable with them, I get really gassy after being there for longer than an hour or two. It used to happen a lot when I visited my in-laws, and once it happened when I drove to Arizona to visit a friend I hadn't seen in a few years. It's funny because when I told my friend I was gassy, her husband laughed and said it happens to her too." —DazzlingAd7021 24."My left thumbnail grows at twice the rate of the rest of my fingernails. I get manicures every three weeks like clockwork, and my nail tech noticed." —NoWordsJustDogs Related: 25."The left side of my body sucks. I get kidney stones, migraines, shoulder pain, itching, toothaches, ovarian cysts, all on my left side." —kogeliz 26."The inside of my ears hurts in the cold weather, wind, or when I have to run. It stings, and no one else ever seems to have it when my ears are killing me." —vctrlzzr420 27."When I feel deep emotional pain or anguish, I get this aching sensation in my right wrist and hand. I've found very little online about it. It's so odd, but I lowkey love it when it happens while reading a novel or watching a movie. It shows me I'm really connecting with the plot!" —cica4 28."My left thumbnail has a defect that causes it to split in the same spot, so I always have a notch in my nail that gets caught on everything. My mother and my grandmother had the same thing on the same finger, and all three of us developed it at around 35. It must be a genetic quirk. I haven't heard of other people/families that have this." —DragonflyWing 29."Sometimes, my feet get warm when I pee. I remember telling my dad about it years ago, and in typical dad fashion, he told me to quit pissing on my feet. Still no answers." —DefinitelyARealLady 30."When I get scared, my legs itch and tingle, and it's purely psychological. Never noticed until I started riding a motorcycle." —ronniesfedora "I get shoulder pain when I have to poop really badly. It's only in my right shoulder." —MissMamaMam Women, do you have any body quirks you literally can't explain? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form. Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Solve the daily Crossword
CNBC
13 minutes ago
- CNBC
Delta Air assures US lawmakers it will not personalize fares using AI
Delta Air Lines said on Friday it will not use artificial intelligence to set personalized ticket prices for passengers after facing sharp criticism from U.S. lawmakers and broad public concern. Last week, Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner and Richard Blumenthal said they believed the Atlanta-based airline would use AI to set individual prices, which would "likely mean fare price increases up to each individual consumer's personal 'pain point.'" Delta said it has not used AI to set personalized prices but previously said it plans to deploy AI-based revenue management technology across 20% of its domestic network by the end of 2025 in partnership with Fetcherr, an AI pricing company. "There is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized prices based on personal data," Delta told the senators in a letter on Friday, seen by Reuters. "Our ticket pricing never takes into account personal data." Senators praised Delta's commitment not to use AI for personal pricing but expressed many questions and want more details about what data Delta is collecting to set prices. "Delta is telling their investors one thing, and then turning around and telling the public another," Gallego said. "If Delta is in fact using aggregated instead of individualized data, that is welcome news." Delta declined comment on Gallego's statement. The senators cited a comment in December by Delta President Glen Hauenstein that the carrier's AI price-setting technology is capable of setting fares based on a prediction of "the amount people are willing to pay for the premium products related to the base fares." Last week, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said using AI to set ticket prices could hurt consumer trust. "This is not about bait and switch. This is not about tricking," Isom said on an earnings call, adding "talk about using AI in that way, I don't think it's appropriate. And certainly from American, it's not something we will do." Democratic lawmakers Greg Casar and Rashida Tlaib last week introduced legislation to bar companies from using AI to set prices or wages based on Americans' personal data and would specifically ban airlines raising individual prices after seeing a search for a family obituary. They cited a Federal Trade Commission staff report in January that found "retailers frequently use people's personal information to set targeted, tailored prices for goods and services -- from a person's location and demographics, down to their mouse movements on a webpage." The FTC cited a hypothetical example of a consumer profiled as a new parent who could intentionally be shown higher-priced baby thermometers and collect behavioral details to forecast a customer's state of mind. Delta said airlines have used dynamic pricing for more than three decades, in which pricing fluctuates based on a variety of factors like overall customer demand, fuel prices and competition, but not a specific consumer's personal information. "Given the tens of millions of fares and hundreds of thousands of routes for sale at any given time, the use of new technology like AI promises to streamline the process by which we analyze existing data and the speed and scale at which we can respond to changing market dynamics," Delta's letter said.
CNN
13 minutes ago
- CNN
Department of Veterans Affairs looks to end certain abortion services for veterans
The US Department of Veterans Affairs is proposing to end certain abortion services to veterans, rolling back a Biden-era move to expand abortion rights. In a proposed rule filed Friday, the department said that it is seeking to revoke access to abortions and abortion counseling for veterans and the beneficiaries of the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs. 'We take this action to ensure that VA provides only needed medical services to our nation's heroes and their families,' the department said in the filing. Under the Biden administration's rule, the department currently provides access to abortions when a pregnant veteran's life or health is at risk if their pregnancy were carried to term, or if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest — regardless of state laws. The proposed rule would allow abortions in cases where 'a physician certifies that the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term,' which, according to the filing, had been permitted even before the 2022 expansion. The Biden-era rule was part of the administration's efforts to expand abortion access after Republican-led states pushed ahead with restrictions in the wake of the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that eliminated the federal right to an abortion. The VA argued at the time that it was necessary to give veterans access to abortions, saying, 'As abortion bans come into force across the country, veterans in many States are no longer assured access to abortion services in their communities, even when those services are needed.' But on Friday, President Donald Trump's VA slammed the Biden administration's rule, calling it federal overreach. 'The stated reason for (the expansion) was a reaction to a Supreme Court decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization … that itself was intended to prevent federal overreach and return to States control over the provision of abortion services,' the filing states. 'Yet, the last administration used Dobbs to do the exact opposite of preventing overreach, creating a purported Federal entitlement to abortion for veterans where none had existed before and without regard to State law.' Twenty states have banned or limited access to abortion. States where abortion is limited report higher rates of maternal and infant mortality, as well as greater economic insecurity. The proposed rule will now be open for public comment for 30 days starting Monday. In his first term, Trump made good on campaign promises and appointed Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade. Since that ruling, Trump has been keen to leave regulations over the issue to state governments. The Trump administration has overall been quiet on the issue of abortion in his second term. However, in June, the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services moved to rescind a 2022 federal guidance to health care providers specifying that people should be able to access an abortion in the event of a medical emergency, even if state laws restrict such procedures. CNN's Veronica Stracqualursi and Jen Christensen contributed to this report.
