Thread

1. pbasista · 1790682806 · focus · HN ↗

   Tangential:

   I have recently noticed that e.g. ChatGPT, when used from a web browser, periodically sends unfinished prompts to their servers, namely to the `conversation/prepare` endpoint, without waiting for the user to actually send it.

   This partial prompt data might potentially be used to "pre-warm" some kind of cache.

   But it may also be used to track the user's writing cadence, error correction style and evolution of their stub ideas as they are being formulated into a prompt. I would assume that such data could also be sold to the advertisers.

   1. ShinyLeftPad · 1790690527 · focus · HN ↗

      I wouldn't be surprised if their privacy policy would say "what you send is private" and then it wouldn't apply to unfinished prompts on technicality

      1. jwstillwater · 1790702521 · focus · HN ↗

         This is my concern as well- the same wiggle-room methodology that allowed a business to claim not to “sell or share” PII, because “user data collaboration” was not part of the legal definition prior to CCPA.

         OpenAI’s statements in response to the Millenium Prize (and related) disputes I think are a pretty obvious example of this in practice. One man’s “user prompts” is not another’s “reasoning trace scratchpad”.

         This comment by Falserum on the mathematics research post articulates it well:

         <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=49649992">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=49649992

   2. kridsdale1 · 1790697762 · focus · HN ↗

      Enough Meta executives have been hired there. Expect the same behavior over time.
   3. derefr · 1790714282 · focus · HN ↗

      &gt; But it may also be used to track the user&#x27;s writing cadence, error correction style

      I&#x27;m pretty sure it is used for this; but rather than for anything nefarious, my guess is that this info is then fed to a classifier model to ensure that users of ChatGPT-the-service (as opposed to the OpenAI inference API) are actual humans, rather than agents trying to circumvent having to pay API pricing.

   4. sroussey · 1790724083 · focus · HN ↗

      You open the same convo on another device and the partially written text is there to continue. Does it not do that for you?

      1. port11 · 1790764615 · focus · HN ↗

         “Oh, we’ll store your unfinished thoughts, privately typed into a text box, on the off-chance that you want to continue writing it on another device. And no, we won’t ask you nor give you any semblance of true privacy.”

         Sounds good.

         1. broken-kebab · 1790772166 · focus · HN ↗

            &quot;Privately typed&quot; is a bit of a stretch, frankly speaking. That text box literally exists to send your texts to a remote entity.

            1. sroussey · 1790815062 · focus · HN ↗

               It is also super common on e-commerce websites that will then send you an email about a cart you started to the point of adding an email but then abandoned.
            2. port11 · 1791097731 · focus · HN ↗

               When you SUBMIT a form, yes, then I agree.

               1. broken-kebab · 1791129977 · focus · HN ↗

                  [dead]

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