No legal privilege for AI Chats, OpenAI CEO cautions users

Sam Altman, the Chief Executive Officer of OpenAI, has cautioned that conversations users have with ChatGPT may be legally disclosed, sparking renewed concern over the lack of privacy protections for AI-assisted interactions.

Speaking during an appearance on the This Past Weekend podcast hosted by Theo Von, Altman noted that a growing number of users, especially younger ones, are turning to ChatGPT for emotional, personal, and professional advice, often treating the AI chatbot like a therapist or life coach.

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“People use it, young people especially, as a therapist, a life coach,” Altman said. “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 called the situation “very screwed up” and urged for stronger privacy safeguards for AI interactions.

“I think we should have the same concept of privacy for your conversations with AI that you do with your therapist or whatever,” Altman added.

His warning comes as AI tools like ChatGPT experience explosive user growth, with between 800 million and one billion weekly active users recorded as of mid-2025.

That figure is a sharp rise from approximately 300 million at the end of 2024.

The platform currently boasts around 10 million paying subscribers and one million commercial users, with OpenAI targeting one billion total users before the end of the year.

Despite the platform’s popularity and its increasing role in people’s daily lives, there remains no legal framework offering protection comparable to doctor-patient or attorney-client confidentiality.

This has raised red flags among privacy advocates who argue that AI companies should be compelled to adopt stricter data privacy protocols.

Podcast host Theo Von admitted he had avoided using AI tools because of uncertainty about who might access his data. In response, Altman acknowledged the need for clear legal boundaries.

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“I think that makes sense to really want the privacy clarity before you use it a lot, the legal clarity,” he said.