The Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) model developed by Open AI has recently created a big agenda. Supported by Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, ChatGPT was launched in November 2022 and gained instant popularity worldwide. ChatGPT's ability to respond very quickly, especially in answering technical, legal and scientific questions and preparing legal documents, and the fact that the answers it provides are very satisfactory and the product of a very comprehensive analysis are among the factors that increase the use of ChatGPT worldwide.
Although ChatGPT has made artificial intelligence a noteworthy element of technology as an innovative invention that makes life much easier, users and other related persons should be careful about some risks. As a matter of fact, it is an expected fact that the chatbot logic that started with ChatGPT will soon create a competitive environment in the relevant market and similar ones will be produced by more than one company. For example, in February 2023, Google launched its own chatbot, Bard, which uses a different language model called LaMDA.
While the ChatGPT concept had just entered our lives, OpenAI introduced GPT-4, which is very successful in tasks requiring advanced judgement, understanding of complex instructions and more creativity. According to user comments, GPT-4 is able to describe pictures, create recipes, write video game codes and build web sites.
In this article, the concept of ChatGPT will be examined in general from a legal perspective and the risks and problems that may arise will be discussed:
1- Personal Data Risks
Artificial intelligence chat robots such as ChatGPT need a wide range of data input in order to work and adapt to the agenda by improving itself day by day. This data input may also include personal data of individuals. Personal data used by OpenAI for the purpose of training ChatGPT without the consent of personal data owners may violate Personal Data Protection laws. Even if individuals have published their personal data on public platforms, this does not mean that the data of the persons concerned can be used unlawfully by ChatGPT without consent.
2- Misleading Information Risk
By its nature, ChatGPT can answer the questions asked to the extent that data is entered and programmed. Therefore, it can be concluded that ChatGPT will produce erroneous text in response to the questions in case the data and/or data are entered incorrectly. Or, if the data entered for training ChatGPT contains errors, inaccuracies or biases, these issues will also be reflected in the answers given by ChatGPT. In this case; it can be said that ChatGPT has the potential to create erroneous content that may have serious consequences such as damaging reputation and spreading misleading information. In this scenario, those who use ChatGPT's response outputs must confirm the accuracy and timeliness of the information they receive. Otherwise, the possibility of legal and criminal liability of these persons will arise.
3- Intellectual Property and Infringement
One of the main problems and risks of ChatGPT is the issue of intellectual property rights. ChatGPT has been trained on a very large amount of data, including works protected by intellectual property laws. Since the datasets on which ChatGPT is trained also include copyrighted works, there is a risk that the output produced by ChatGPT may lead to uncontrolled reproduction of copyrighted works or dissemination of works similar to these works. As a matter of fact, there is not yet any regulation preventing the use of an output generated by ChatGPT, which has recently entered our lives, by individuals or aiming to prevent such cases of illegality. Therefore, in this scenario, the problem of copyright infringement will arise and this risk of infringement may cover not only ChatGPT but also the person using the ChatGPT output.
4- Privacy
Another risk of using ChatGPT is the unauthorised disclosure of confidential information. A trader using ChatGPT may enter commercially sensitive and/or confidential information while asking a question to the artificial intelligence chatbot. In this case, since commercially sensitive and/or confidential information will be part of ChatGPT's database, such information may be used to generate output in other similar or related questions or requests. Therefore, it is useful for users to be extra careful about the data they enter and the information they write to ChatGPT.
5- Plagiarism
Plagiarism is recognised as a serious problem especially in education and academia. Today, it is seen that students who use ChatGPT uncontrollably are doing their homework through ChatGPT. For example, students can use ChatGPT to write an article on any subject such as science, literature, law and the article will be ready in seconds. ChatGPT technology can be used not only by students but also by most verbal professionals. For example, a journalist will be able to write an article with great efficiency in a very short time through ChatGPT. This plagiarism situation will bring ethical concerns in addition to other risks and problems that are thought to arise with this article. In addition to preventing personal development, it is obvious that it will create an unfair competition environment.
6- ChatGPT Use in Law
ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionise the field of law, as it can be used to predict the likely outcome of a case or to form a legal opinion based on existing legal case law. In addition, GPT-4 will be able to be used to create legal contracts or develop arguments for a particular legal position.
However, the use of GPT-4 in the legal profession will raise some questions as well as advantages. For example, it is not clear how GPT-4 can interpret the nuances of legal language (especially grammatical errors and/or ambiguities) or the complexities of existing legal precedents. In addition, as it is unclear how the technology will set and adhere to ethical standards, there are questions about how fair and equitable outputs will be when using GPT-4 for legal reasoning and legal interpretation.
7- Liability and Responsibility
When using ChatGPT, users should also pay attention to ChatGPT's disclaimers and limitations of liability under the ChatGPT terms of use.
CONCLUSION
ChatGPT poses a number of challenges for lawyers and legal professionals. The biggest problem is that technology cannot keep pace with the complexity of the law, and the law cannot keep pace with the speed of technology. While ChatGPT can generate automated answers to simple legal questions, it cannot grasp more complex concepts or interpret case law in a sound manner in line with local case law. This lack of understanding may lead to incorrect or incomplete advice. Moreover, ethical concerns as to whether it is appropriate for a non-human entity to provide legal advice are also a matter of debate in foreign doctrine. For this reason, it should not be forgotten that ChatGPT has advantages in daily life, as well as disadvantages and risks.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.