OpenAI, the AI company known for its chatbot ChatGPT, announced that it is temporarily disabling the “Browse with Bing” feature due to content-related concerns.
This feature was available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers and allowed the chatbot to search Bing for up-to-date information to expand its knowledge.
“We have found that the ‘ChatGPT Browse with Bing’ beta sometimes presents content in a way that is not what we intended,” OpenAI explained in its official announcement. “For example, there were cases where the function accidentally fulfilled a request for the full text of a URL.”
The move follows a spate of recent lawsuits against OpenAI challenging copyright and privacy laws.
Copyright and Privacy Disputes
OpenAI is involved in several lawsuits.
A recent legal complaint alleges that OpenAI used copyrighted books as data to train AI systems without asking or paying for the authors’ permission.
This allegation, labeled “Tremblay vs. OpenAI Inc.”, states that ChatGPT can summarize the authors’ works, suggesting that it has appropriated the content of the copyrighted books.
Another lawsuit alleging data theft, PM v. OpenAI LP, accuses OpenAI of collecting data from hundreds of millions of users without obtaining the appropriate consent.
The claim states that OpenAI has worked with platforms like Snapchat, Spotify, Stripe, Slack, and Microsoft Teams to secretly collect user data.
Legal outcomes could determine the future of AI
These cases can potentially change the future of AI by setting important legal precedents related to privacy and copyright.
If the court decides in favor of the plaintiffs, OpenAI faces financial penalties.
In addition, regulators could increase scrutiny of OpenAI, which would result in stricter regulations.
On the one hand, a judgment against OpenAI could stifle AI innovation. If companies are heavily fined every time an AI system makes a mistake, it can impede further progress.
On the other hand, there is an argument that regulation and accountability are necessary to ensure that AI is developed safely and for the right purposes.
In total
ChatGPT Plus’s “Browse with Bing” feature is disabled “as a great precaution”.
OpenAI says they are fixing the feature “to please content owners” and will bring it back as soon as possible.
Featured image: ssi77/Shutterstock
