Chief Executive Officer of OpenAI, Sam Altman, has warned that user conversations with ChatGPT could be subject to legal disclosure, raising concerns over the absence of privacy protections for interactions with artificial intelligence tools.
In an interview on the This Past Weekend podcast hosted by Theo Von, Altman said many users now treat generative AI as a trusted adviser, often sharing sensitive personal information. However, unlike communications with doctors, lawyers, or therapists, AI chats are not legally protected.
‘People use it, young people especially, as a therapist, a life coach’, the OpenAI chief stated.
‘Right now, if you talk to a therapist or a lawyer or a doctor about those problems, there’s legal privilege for it.
‘If you go talk to ChatGPT about the most sensitive stuff and then there’s a lawsuit or whatever, we could be required to produce that’, he added.
Describing the situation as ‘very screwed up’, Altman said conversations with AI should enjoy similar legal protections to those with licensed professionals. ‘I think we should have the same concept of privacy for your conversations with AI that you do with your therapist or whatever’, he said.
The warning comes amid growing concerns from users and privacy advocates about how AI companies handle data. Although platforms like ChatGPT are designed with safeguards, the lack of regulatory frameworks means that conversations may be vulnerable to legal requests.
ChatGPT currently has between 800 million and one billion weekly active users as of mid-2025, reflecting the platform’s rapid growth. Earlier this year, the number stood at around 400 million weekly users, doubling from approximately 300 million in late 2024. The platform has also accumulated about 10 million paying subscribers and one million commercial plan users. OpenAI aims to cross the one billion user milestone by the end of 2025.
With such a vast user base and growing dependence on AI for personal, professional, and emotional support, the issue of privacy has taken on greater urgency. Von, the podcast host, admitted he had avoided using AI tools partly because of uncertainty over who might access his data.
‘I think that makes sense to really want the privacy clarity before you use it a lot, the legal clarity’, Altman said in response.
