Welcome to the forefront of conversational AI as we explore the fascinating world of AI chatbots in our dedicated blog series. Discover the latest advancements, applications, and strategies that propel the evolution of chatbot technology. From enhancing customer interactions to streamlining business processes, these articles delve into the innovative ways artificial intelligence is shaping the landscape of automated conversational agents. Whether you’re a business owner, developer, or simply intrigued by the future of interactive technology, join us on this journey to unravel the transformative power and endless possibilities of AI chatbots.
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OpenAI disables ChatGPT’s search discoverability feature after shared chats appeared in Google results, raising privacy concerns.
OpenAI has rolled back a feature that allowed ChatGPT conversations shared via link to appear in Google Search results.
The company confirms it has disabled the toggle that enabled shared chats to be “discoverable” by search engines and is working to remove existing indexed links.
When users shared a ChatGPT conversation using the platform’s built-in “Share” button, they were given the option to make the chat visible in search engines.
That feature, introduced quietly earlier this year, caused concern after thousands of personal chats started showing up in search results.
Fast Company first reported the issue, finding over 4,500 shared ChatGPT links indexed by Google, some containing personally identifiable information such as names, resumes, emotional reflections, and confidential work content.
In a statement, OpenAI confirms:
“We just removed a feature from [ChatGPT] that allowed users to make their conversations discoverable by search engines, such as Google. This was a short-lived experiment to help people discover useful conversations. This feature required users to opt-in, first by picking a chat to share, then by clicking a checkbox for it to be shared with search engines (see below).
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. We’re also working to remove indexed content from the relevant search engines. This change is rolling out to all users through tomorrow morning.
Security and privacy are paramount for us, and we’ll keep working to maximally reflect that in our products and features.”
By default, shared ChatGPT links were accessible only to people with the URL. But users could choose to toggle on discoverability, allowing search engines like Google to index the conversation.
That setting has now been removed, and previously shared chats will no longer be indexed going forward. However, OpenAI cautions that already-indexed content may still appear in search results temporarily due to caching.
Importantly, deleting a conversation from your ChatGPT history does not delete the public share link or remove it from search engines.
The discoverability toggle was intended to encourage people to reuse outputs generated in ChatGPT, but the company acknowledges it came with unintended privacy tradeoffs.
Even though OpenAI offered explicit controls over visibility, many people may not have understood the implications of enabling search indexing.
This is a reminder to be cautious about what kinds of information you enter into AI chatbots. Although a chat starts out private, features like sharing, logging, or model training can create paths for that content to be exposed publicly.
OpenAI says it’s working with Google and other search engines to remove indexed shared links and is reassessing how public sharing features are handled in ChatGPT.
If you’ve shared a ChatGPT conversation in the past, you can check your visibility settings and delete shared links through the ChatGPT Shared Links dashboard.
Featured Image: Mehaniq/Shutterstock
Matt G. Southern, Senior News Writer, has been with Search Engine Journal since 2013. With a bachelor’s degree in communications, …
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