Your ChatGPT data automatically trains its AI models – unless you turn off this setting

If you rely on ChatGPT to run aspects of your life, and often pass fairly sensitive data to the AI, you might want to make sure you’ve opted out of its ‘Improve model for everyone’ setting. Otherwise OpenAI’s model will be training itself on what you tell it.

Before you panic, you should know that not all data is automatically passed over to ChatGPT’s training pool. Temporary Chats and Business plans will have this feature turned off by default. What’s more, OpenAI makes clear that the data is kept private and is purely used to improve the AI’s understanding of how language is used, rather than being used to create individualized profiles of users for advertising or other nefarious purposes.

Still, if you’re a free or even a premium ChatGPT Plus account anything you say will be helping to train ChatGPT with by default. So how do you turn it off?

Three simple steps

Looking to opt out of contributing your data to the training of OpenAI's AI models? Here's how to do it:

A laptop screen on a pink and purple background showing ChatGPT's settings page

(Image credit: OpenAI / Future)
  • Start by clicking your profile picture in the top right corner of the ChatGPT screen.
  • You’ll then want to go into Settings, and the third option down will be Data Controls. Click it.
  • Once in this submenu, toggle ‘Improve the model for everyone’ off and close out of settings.

A more private AI era?

Apple Intelligence presentation

(Image credit: Apple)

Privacy in AI has always been an important topic, but it has been thrust firmly into the spotlight recently thanks to Apple’s WWDC 2024 keynote. 

This is where the company finally unveiled its Apple Intelligence model, and one of its core features is its top-tier data handling and privacy methods – which Apple has boasted are verified by independent third-parties.

It also follows Microsoft’s botched rollout of Recall; it’s a Windows Copilot feature where an AI takes screenshots your display very frequently and logs everything you do on your PC so it can remind you of your actions later. Useful, sure, but also a potential privacy nightmare.

We expect privacy will only continue to be an important conversation, with users more and more wary of auto-on data sharing settings like ChatGPT’s 'Improve model for everyone', but we’ll have to wait and see how AI creators react.

You might also like

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

iOS 18 could be loaded with AI, as Apple reveals 8 new artificial intelligence models that run on-device

Apple has released a set of several new AI models that are designed to run locally on-device rather than in the cloud, possibly paving the way for an AI-powered iOS 18 in the not-too-distant future.

The iPhone giant has been doubling down on AI in recent months, with a carefully split focus across cloud-based and on-device AI. We saw leaks earlier this week indicating that Apple plans to make its own AI server chips, so this reveal of new local large language models (LLMs) demonstrates that the company is committed to both breeds of AI software. I’ll dig into the implications of that further down, but for now, let’s explain exactly what these new models are.

The suite of AI tools contains eight distinct models, called OpenELMs (Open-source Efficient Language Models). As the name suggests, these models are fully open-source and available on the Hugging Face Hub, an online community for AI developers and enthusiasts. Apple also published a whitepaper outlining the new models. Four were pre-trained on CoreNet (previously CVNets), a massive library of data used for training AI language models, while the other four have been ‘instruction-tuned’ by Apple; a process by which an AI model’s learning parameters are carefully honed to respond to specific prompts.

Releasing open-source software is a somewhat unusual move for Apple, which typically retains quite a close grip on its software ecosystem. The company claims to want to “empower and enrich” public AI research by releasing the OpenELMs to the wider AI community.

So what does this actually mean for users?

Apple has been seriously committed to AI recently, which is good to see as the competition is fierce in both the phone and laptop arenas, with stuff like the Google Pixel 8’s AI-powered Tensor chip and Qualcomm’s latest AI chip coming to Surface devices.

By putting its new on-device AI models out to the world like this, Apple is likely hoping that some enterprising developers will help iron out the kinks and ultimately improve the software – something that could prove vital if it plans to implement new local AI tools in future versions of iOS and macOS.

It’s worth bearing in mind that the average Apple device is already packed with AI capabilities, with the Apple Neural Engine found on the company’s A- and M-series chips powering features such as Face ID and Animoji. The upcoming M4 chip for Mac systems also appears to sport new AI-related processing capabilities, something that's swiftly becoming a necessity as more-established professional software implements machine-learning tools (like Firefly in Adobe Photoshop).

In other words, we can probably expect AI to be the hot-button topic for iOS 18 and macOS 15. I just hope it’s used for clever and unique new features, rather than Microsoft’s constant Copilot nagging.

You might also like…

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Meta is on the brink of releasing AI models it claims to have “human-level cognition” – hinting at new models capable of more than simple conversations

We could be on the cusp of a whole new realm of AI large language models and chatbots thanks to Meta’s Llama 3 and OpenAI’s GPT-5, as both companies emphasize the hard work going into making these bots more human. 

In an event earlier this week, Meta reiterated that Llama 3 will be rolling out to the public in the coming weeks, with Meta’s president of global affairs Nick Clegg stating that we should expect the large language model “Within the next month, actually less, hopefully in a very short period, we hope to start rolling out our new suite of next-generation foundation models, Llama 3.”

Meta’s large language models are publicly available, allowing developers and researchers free and open access to the tech to create their bots or conduct research on various aspects of artificial intelligence. The models are trained on a plethora of text-based information, and Llama 3 promises much more impressive capabilities than the current model. 

No official date for Meta’s Llama 3 or OpenAI’s GPT-5 has been announced just yet, but we can safely assume the models will make an appearance in the coming weeks. 

Smarten Up 

Joelle Pineau, the vice president of AI research at Meta noted that “We are hard at work in figuring out how to get these models not just to talk, but actually to reason, to plan . . . to have memory.” Openai’s chief operating officer Brad Lightcap told the Finacial Times in an interview that the next GPT version would show progress in solving difficult queries with reasoning. 

So, it seems the next big push with these AI bots will be introducing the human element of reasoning and for lack of a better term, ‘thinking’. Lightcap also said “We’re going to start to see AI that can take on more complex tasks in a more sophisticated way,” adding “ We’re just starting to scratch the surface on the ability that these models have to reason.”

As tech companies like OpenAI and Meta continue working on more sophisticated and ‘lifelike’  human interfaces, it is both exciting and somewhat unnerving to think about a chatbot that can ‘think’ with reason and memory. Tools like Midjourney and Sora have championed just how good AI can be in terms of quality output, and Google Gemini and ChatGPT are great examples of how helpful text-based bots can be in the everyday. 

With so many ethical and moral concerns still unaddressed with the current tools available right now as they are, I dread to think what kind of nefarious things could be done with more human AI models. Plus, you must admit it’s all starting to feel a little bit like the start of a sci-fi horror story.  

You might also like…

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More