OpenAI Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sam Altman has cautioned ChatGPT users who treat the chatbot as a confessional that their chats could be used as evidence in court in case a crime is committed.
Speaking at the This Past Weekend podcast on June 25, Altman revealed that there is no legal or policy framework to protect your chats from scrutiny in case of a lawsuit at the moment.
Basically, no legal privilege shields ChatGPT discussions the way doctor-patient or attorney-client exchanges are protected. "Right now… if you talk to ChatGPT about your most sensitive stuff and then there's like a lawsuit or whatever, we could be required to produce that, and I think that's very screwed up," Altman said.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Speaking at a Federal Reserve meeting on July 22, 2025.
