What Happens to What Kids Type Into a Chatbot

Transcript

Think about the last thing you typed into a chatbot. Don't say it out loud. Does a company still have a copy of it right now? Could a person read it?

If you're not sure, you're in good company. Almost nobody knows.

Here's what can happen to one sentence you type. It can be stored, kept on the company's computers. It can be read, usually by someone checking for problems. And it can be trained on, added to the pile of writing the next AI learns from. A company might do all three, or one, or none.

That last one gets mixed up a lot. The chatbot isn't learning from you mid-conversation. It was trained months ago. Your words might end up in the next version, though.

And "we don't sell your data" is on just about every app. Nice, but it doesn't answer any of those three. A company can say it and still keep your chats forever, let staff read them, and train on them.

The real answers are in the privacy policy. If it isn't written there, you're just hoping.