Think AI tools aren’t harvesting your data? Guess again

The meteoric ascent of generative artificial intelligence has created a bonafide technology sensation thanks to user-focused products such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Dall-E and Lensa. But the boom in user-friendly AI has arrived in conjunction with users seemingly ignoring or being left in the dark about the privacy risks imposed by these projects.

In the midst of all this hype, however, international governments and major tech figures are starting to sound the alarm. Citing privacy and security concerns, Italy just placed a temporary ban on ChatGPT, potentially inspiring a similar block in Germany. In the private sector, hundreds of AI researchers and tech leaders, including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, signed an open letter urging a six-month moratorium on AI development beyond the scope of GPT-4.

The relatively swift action to try to rein in irresponsible AI development is commendable, but the wider landscape of threats that AI poses to data privacy and security goes beyond one model or developer. Although no one wants to rain on the parade of AI’s paradigm-shifting capabilities, tackling its shortcomings head-on now is necessary to avoid the consequences becoming catastrophic.

AI’s data privacy storm

While it would be easy to say that OpenAI and other Big Tech-fuelled AI projects are solely responsible for AI’s data privacy problem, the subject had been broached long before it entered the mainstream. Scandals surrounding data privacy in AI have happened prior to this crackdown on ChatGPT—they’ve just mostly occurred out of the public eye.

Just last year, Clearview AI, an AI-based facial recognition firm reportedly utilized by thousands of governments and law enforcement agencies with limited public knowledge, was banned from selling facial recognition technology to private businesses in the United States. Clearview also landed a fine of $9.4 million in the United Kingdom for its illegal facial recognition database. Who’s to say that consumer-focused visual AI projects such as Midjourney or others can’t be used for similar purposes?