To its credit, OpenAI acted quickly to shut the feature down. However, the episode underscores the importance of privacy-first design, clearer disclosures, and enhanced protections, particularly as generative AI becomes increasingly integrated into daily life.

OpenAI is ending the option to have Google and other search engines index user chats with ChatGPT and make the content of those chats discoverable on searches.

Thousands of private ChatGPT conversations have been appearing in Google search results because of the chatbot's "Share" feature, which the company recently removed following a backlash.