Recently, OpenAI ChatGPT users were shocked – shocked, I tell you! – to discover that their searches were appearing in Google search. You morons! What do you think AI chatbots are doing? Doing all your homework for free or a mere $20 a month? I think not!
When you ask an AI chatbot for an answer, whether it’s about the role of tariffs in decreasing prices (spoiler: tariffs increase them,); whether your girlfriend is really that into you; or, my particular favorite, “How to Use a Microwave Without Summoning Satan,” OpenAI records your questions. And, until recently, Google kept the records for anyone who is search savvy to find them.
It’s not like OpenAI didn’t tell you that if you shared your queries with other people or saved them for later use, it wasn’t copying them down and making them potentially searchable. The company explicitly said this was happening.
The warning read: “When users clicked ‘Share,’ they were given the option to ‘Make this chat discoverable.’ Under that, in smaller text, was the explanation that you were allowing it to be ‘shown in web searches’.”
Well, of course.
This is referring to sharing individual chats via the ChatGPT UI which makes them public and at least used to make them findable via search engines.
Yes, OpenAI still stores everything you type into their text inputs, but no, it’s not visible to the general public by default.