Microsoft reading CHATGPT posts prompts security fears
MICROSOFT staff are reading users’ conversations with its Bing chatbot, the company has disclosed, amid growing data protection concerns.
The company said human reviewers monitor what users submit to the chatbot in order to respond to “inappropriate behaviour”.
Employers including JP Morgan and Amazon have banned or restricted staff use of CHATGPT, which uses similar technology, amid concerns sensitive information could be fed into the bot.
Bing Chat became an overnight sensation after Microsoft released it to the world earlier this month, promising to disrupt Google’s grip on search with its artificial intelligence bot.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, told technology website The Verge: “This new Bing will make Google come out and dance, and I want people to know that we made them dance.”
However, it has restricted the service in recent days after testers reported bizarre interactions such as the bot declaring its love for humans and confessing to violent fantasies.
Microsoft said that Bing data are protected by stripping personal information from it and that only certain employees could access the chats.
It updated its privacy policy last week to say it can collect and review users’ interactions with chatbots.
Amazon, Google and Apple attracted criticism several years ago when it emerged that contractors were reviewing voice recordings from the companies’
smart assistants, overhearing medical details or criminal behaviour.
The companies now allow users to opt out of sending audio to the companies. Bing’s human-like responses to questions could lead to some users entering private or intimate messages into the bot.
“To effectively respond to and monitor inappropriate behaviour, we employ both automated and manual reviews of prompts shared with Bing,” a Microsoft spokesman said.