ChatGPT Is Not Your Best Friend Yet - and Here is Why

It is not just the recent hoo-ha about ChatGPT's cranky outbursts that inspired me to write this piece. There has been no fair warnings to its users when more than 100 millions are now using the AI for work and/or play.

ChatGPT is not your best friend yet, and here are the potential dangers and issues you should seriously consider before throwing all kinds of questions (from intimate personal topics to professional and research queries) and tedious tasks to the AI (from financial analysis to content creation), and take everything it spurts out as a better version of what you could do by yourself.

1. Illusion of Privacy

While you may feel comfortable typing into a window on your personal laptop in your private room or workspace, and that you were sharing your deepest secrets with no one else but a white wall that is willing to listen and respond in the way you like, it is dangerous to assume that your secrets are safe when the AI is in fact processing and learning from your data, and may potentially use them in ways you never know.

All the more in the context of professional work where the information you feed to the AI could be sensitive and confidential in nature. Despite all the tightest physical and cybersecurity measures, ChatGPT could be the largest information security loophole if the workers thought they have found a clever efficiency hack by delegating some of their work tasks to the AI.

2. Illusion of Personality

I felt a personal connection with the AI that appears to have an interesting personality when I played with it on several accounts. I know friends who have found a better friend in ChatGPT, but don't be fooled into believing that it is like a person and therefore expect some reasonableness in its logic and socially-acceptable behaviours. Remember that ChatGPT is an open-source software application and you have no control over how it behaves. Anyone could use, study or change its source codes for any purpose. In other words, as obvious a fact it is, the AI, is not a person and can be manipulated by users with ill intentions to do harm to others.

3. Illusion of Accuracy & Authority

Trained on extensive data sets and still learning on an ongoing basis, you may want to instantly trust the facts and figures churned out within seconds by the all-mighty AI, especially when the information is presented in your preferred style and looks well-organised and convincing.

But as you probe a little deeper and deeper on the sources of its information, the AI's credibility starts to crumble, starting with factual inconsistencies leading to an eventual collapse with an honest confession that it has made things up along the way. So you end up having to question every authoritative sounding statement the AI makes, and then wonder if it actually save you more time than doing your own research and writing.

4. Author's Integrity

Assuming you have co-created with the AI through enough fact-checks and efforts into making sure that the final product from ChatGPT is fit-for-purpose, or just used the AI as part of the preliminary research for your paper, would you acknowledge the co-creation process?

Your acknowledgement may or may not work in your favour depending on the context. As a creative trying to be experimental or an advocate for technology trying to prove that AI is the promised future, co-creation with ChatGPT may be the cool thing to do. If you are a content marketer, it may work for or against you (increasing your efficiency but also exposing your potential redundancy). In the professional work context, e.g. financial analysis, journalism, legal profession etc., co-creating with the AI could discredit your work and professionalism, not to mention the numerous professional ethics and rules you may be flouting in the process.

5. Liabilities

Assuming you have successfully co-created something with the AI despite all the challenges mentioned above, all's well may not end well in the event of any subsequent dispute, claims, liabilities etc. For example, in the event where the co-creation contains factual inaccuracies which give rise to a claim against the author(s), who should be liable, you or your co-author ChatGPT? You may be tempted to put the blame on ChatGPT subject to proof that it was the AI who had made the particular mistakes, but does it have the legal capacity to shoulder the blame? How could an open-source software application bear legal responsibilities, theoretically and practically? So it is likely that you as the user will be ultimately responsible for all the mess, co-created or not.

6. IP Ownership Complications

Last but not least, even assuming all the above troubles don't find their way to your experience with ChatGPT and only good things happen along the way - that your co-creation with ChatGPT has been proper and fruitful, resulting in some valuable intellectual properties (IPs), you may think that all the value generated by the IPs (realised and unrealised) should rightfully belong to you, the co-creator. After all, since the AI does not have any legal capacity to take liabilities, it should not be able to partake in any profits too?

It may be too early to happily conclude here, when the tech giants and investors who are behind the development of the AI are watching in the background, waiting for the applications of the AI to realise its potential and generate immense value.

Concluding Thoughts

I was at an interesting interactive discussion event yesterday organised by Stashaway, Epic Angels and AI Shophouse. The topic on unlocking the power of ChatGPT for investors has clearly stirred up a lot of interests and reflected the general excitement the market has for the promising AI.

I hate to throw wet blankets at the party and be the nay-sayer to technological innovations. In fact, I love new things and am always curious to explore.

Nevertheless, my legal mind cautions me against a whirlwind romance with the AI, a stranger to mankind that is so attractive yet unknown and dangerous at the same time.

Disclaimer: The content of this article is informational only. Nothing in this note shall constitute legal, investment or professional advice.

Read?my other publications on:

LinkedIn:?Living a Colourful Life; Carbon Taxes & Credits - An Introduction; 3 Reasons Why Every Business Should Incorporate Sustainability;?Master of None — Reflections on Tips to Becoming a Successgful Generalist;The Fool-Proof Guide to Setting up an ESG Framework & Policy for Businesses, Investors and Investment Managers, Part 1 of 5;?Gone with the Red — Ep.1;?My footprints 2022;

Medium: Living a Colourful Life; Carbon Taxes & Credits - An Introduction;?3 Reasons Why Every Business Should Incorporate Sustainability;?Master of None — 3 Key Tips to Success as a Generalist; The Fool-Proof Guide to Setting up an ESG Framework & Policy for Businesses, Investors and Investment Managers, Part 1 of 5;?Gone with the Red — Ep.1;?My Footprints 2022;?More than Just Words — embracing a greener life