BERLIN: Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Claude are now widely used not only for general queries but also for health issues, financial advice, legal questions and personal conflicts.
Users should be aware, however, that operators may use their data for purposes such as advertising.
Ayten Öksüz, a data protection specialist in Germany, advises against sharing confidential or particularly sensitive information with an AI chatbot as a general rule.
Users of the free version of OpenAI's ChatGPT are now also seeing ads. OpenAI has enabled paid ads in ChatGPT in more than 30 European countries, according to Öksüz, and this applies not only to the free version but also the cheaper Go plan.
According to OpenAI, accounts on the Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans are exempt, as are accounts believed to belong to users under the age of 18.
For everyone else, however, this means that if you ask the AI to compare product offers, you may see ads related to your query.
Users should therefore look carefully, Öksüz advises. OpenAI says the ads will be clearly labelled and separated from responses.
Nevertheless, it could cause confusion if a product being discussed in the chat is also being advertised there, making it harder to distinguish the AI response from the ad, Öksüz says.
Öksüz advises users to generally question anything an AI tells you and verify the information with additional sources.
Users should be aware that the advice the chatbot offers is not automatically the best or most neutral, Öksüz says.
Anyone who doesn't want to receive ads should adjust their ChatGPT settings and activate an ad-free version. However, Öksüz notes this means accepting additional restrictions on message limits.
Critics have argued that ChatGPT's introduction of ads represents a conflict of interest. "Advertising models reward platforms for maximising engagement, yet the content that best sustains attention is often misleading, emotionally charged or harmful to health," according to a January analysis from non-profit media network The Conversation.
Further features are currently being tested with selected advertisers in the United States: users who see advertising in ChatGPT will in future be able to contact sponsored AI agents to request further information. – dpa
