(Creidt: VCG / Contributor / Visual China Group via Getty Images)
UPDATE 8/1: Following publication of this story, OpenAI removed all chats from Google search results, along with the checkbox in ChatGPT that enabled users to make them discoverable. When you search site:chatgpt.com/share on Google, there are no longer any results.
The chats are still appearing in other search engines, such as Bing and DuckDuckGo, as of this writing since the feature is still "rolling out to all users," says OpenAI CISO Dan Stuckey. (Here's one where someone fights with the chatbot, and asks it about the history of political corruption.)
"Ultimately, we think this feature introduced too many opportunities for folks to accidentally share things they didn't intend to, so we're removing the option," Stuckey says. "We're also working to remove indexed content from the relevant search engines."
An OpenAI spokesperson confirms to PCMag that it was an "experiment" that has now ended.
Original Story 7/31:
Many chatbot users seem to be unintentionally making their private ChatGPT conversations publicly available in search results on sites like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo.
You can view a trove of others' conversations by adding site:chatgpt.com/share to your search queries. When we perused the results, one person asked for help with a passive-aggressive partner. A recently discharged veteran said they were "lonely, stressed, and struggling," and asked about local support groups. Another person asked ChatGPT to confirm a conspiracy theory that Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is "the deep state" with "secret tunnels" and "giant generators."
As Fast Company first reported, there are seemingly endless pages of personal, private chats, all of which have one thing in common. People "shared" them by pressing a button in ChatGPT that created a link to that specific conversation.
This feature, which rolled out in May 2023, was pitched as a "new way for users to share their ChatGPT conversations, replacing the old and burdensome method of sharing screenshots." Those with shared links can also continue the conversation.
Shared links do not include the person's name or account details. But if someone includes a specific phrase or name in the chat, it may be easily identifiable and searchable.
According to OpenAI's Shared Links FAQ, conversations will not appear in public search results unless you "manually enable the link to be indexed by search engines when sharing." The pop-up has a small checkbox that says, "Make this chat discoverable," which people may think is required. In smaller print below the box, it reads, "Allows it to be shown in web searches."
A Google spokesperson says OpenAI is responsible for publishing the results to search engines, and search engines are not initiating this behavior. If you're worried about links you've shared on ChatGPT becoming public, you can edit or delete them. If you delete your ChatGPT account, your shared links also go down with it.
Of course, some people might not care if their conversations are searchable. Maybe they're using a throwaway account or looking to engage with other like-minded web users. However, if you want to keep your chats between you, ChatGPT, and a close inner circle, be careful how you share.
"People talk about the most personal shit in their lives to ChatGPT," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an interview last week, TechCrunch reports. “People use it—young people, especially, use it—as a therapist, a life coach; having these relationship problems and [asking] ‘what should I do?’"
The company is also legally required to retain and share your personal chats in the event of a lawsuit. In other words, they can and will be used against you in court.
'A Massive SEO Goldmine'
One Redditor calls search engines' indexing of ChatGPT conversations a "goldmine" for businesses, specifically people who work in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and are trying to understand the type of content their audience wants to read online.
"These conversations reveal exactly what your audience struggles with," they write. "The questions they're too embarrassed to ask publicly. Think about it: We've spent years trying to understand search intent through keyword research and user interviews. Now we can literally see the conversations people are having with AI about our industry."
Meta's AI ran into a similar issue in June, when people were shocked to find out that sharing conversations meant they would show up in others' feeds. In response, Meta updated its AI app to show a warning prompt before sharing any chats to the public Discover feed.
Meanwhile, after Google renamed Bard to Gemini in February 2024, people realized Gemini chats were appearing in Google search results using the site:gemini.google.com/share parameter, Search Engine Journal reports. That query no longer returns any results.
The connection between Google and ChatGPT may also run deeper than surfacing shared links. Others have noticed that ChatGPT's answers may pull directly from Google search results, and sometimes appear exactly the same as Google's AI overview. "Well, we all knew ChatGPT is also a wrapper for Wikipedia and Google search," one Redditor writes.