13/12/2023, 10:35 How ChatGPT and Our Language Models Are Developed | OpenAI Help Center

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How ChatGPT and Our Language

Table of contents
OpenAI’s large language models, including the models that power ChatGPT, are
developed using three primary sources of information: (1) information that is publicly
available on the internet, (2) information that we license from third parties, and (3)
information that our users or our human trainers provide.
This article provides an overview of the publicly available information we use to help
develop our models and how we collect and use that information in compliance with
privacy laws. To understand how we collect and use information from users of our
services, including how to opt out of having ChatGPT conversations used to help teach
our models, please see our Privacy Policy and this help center article.
What is ChatGPT, and how does it work?
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence-based service that you can access via the internet.
You can use ChatGPT to organize or summarize text, or to write new text. ChatGPT has
been developed in a way that allows it to understand and respond to user questions and
instructions. It does this by “reading” a large amount of existing text and learning how
words tend to appear in context with other words. It then uses what it has learned to
predict the next most likely word that might appear in response to a user request, and
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each subsequent word after that. This is similar to auto-complete capabilities on search
engines, smartphones, and email programs.
As an example, during the model learning process (called “training”), we might have a
model try to complete the sentence: “instead of turning left, she turned ___.” Before
training, the model will respond with random words, but as it reads and learns from
many lines of text, it better understands this type of sentence and can predict the next
word more accurately. It then repeats this process across a very large number of
sentences.
Because there are many possible words that could come next in this sentence (e.g.,
instead of turning left, she turned “right,” “around,” or “back”), there is an element of
randomness in the way a model can respond, and in many cases our models will answer
the same question in different ways.
Machine learning models are made up of large strings of numbers, called “weights” or
“parameters,” and code that interprets and executes those numbers. Models do not
contain or store copies of information that they learn from. Instead, as a model learns,
some of the numbers that make up the model change slightly to reflect what it has
learned. In the example above, the model read information that helped it improve from
predicting random incorrect words to predicting more accurate words, but all that
actually happened in the model itself was that the numbers changed slightly. The model
did not store or copy the sentences that it read.
What type of information is used to teach ChatGPT?
As noted above, ChatGPT and our other services are developed using (1) information
that is publicly available on the internet, (2) information that we license from third
parties, and (3) information that our users or human trainers provide. This article
focuses on the first set: information that is publicly available on the internet.
For this set of information, we only use publicly available information that is freely and
openly available on the Internet – for example, we do not seek information behind
paywalls or from the “dark web.” We apply filters and remove information that we do not
want our models to learn from or output, such as hate speech, adult content, sites that
primarily aggregate personal information, and spam. We then use the information to
teach our models.
As mentioned in the previous section, ChatGPT does not copy or store training
information in a database. Instead, it learns about associations between words, and
those learnings help the model update its numbers/weights. The model then uses those
weights to predict and generate new words in response to a user request. It does not
“copy and paste” training information – much like a person who has read a book and
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sets it down, our models do not have access to training information after they have
learned from it.
Is personal information used to teach ChatGPT?
A large amount of data on the internet relates to people, so our training information
does incidentally include personal information. We don’t actively seek out personal
information to train our models.
We use training information only to help our models learn about language and how
to understand and respond to it. We do not and will not use any personal
information in training information to build profiles about people, to contact them,
to advertise to them, to try to sell them anything, or to sell the information itself.
Our models may learn from personal information to understand how things like names
and addresses fit within language and sentences, or to learn about famous people and
public figures. This makes our models better at providing relevant responses.
How does the development of ChatGPT comply with
privacy laws?
We use training information lawfully. Large language models have many applications
that provide significant benefits and are already helping people create content, improve
customer service, develop software, customize education, support scientific research,
and much more. These benefits cannot be realized without a large amount of
information to teach the models. In addition, our use of training information is not meant
to negatively impact individuals, and the sources of this training information are already
publicly available. For these reasons, we base our collection and use of personal
information that is included in training information on legitimate interests according to
privacy laws like the GDPR. To fulfill our compliance obligations, we have also
completed a data protection impact assessment to help ensure we are collecting and
using this information legally and responsibly.
We respond to objection requests and similar rights. As a result of learning
language, ChatGPT responses may sometimes include personal information about
individuals whose personal information appears multiple times on the public internet
(for example, public figures). Individuals in certain jurisdictions can object to the
processing of their personal information by our models by filling out this form.
Individuals also may have the right to access, correct, restrict, delete, or transfer their
personal information that may be included in our training information. You can exercise
these rights by reaching out to [email protected].

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Please be aware that, in accordance with privacy laws, some rights may not be
absolute. We may decline a request if we have a lawful reason for doing so. However,
we strive to prioritize the protection of personal information and comply with all
applicable privacy laws. If you feel we have not adequately addressed an issue, you
have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.
We protect training information and limit how it is used and shared. To keep this
information safe, we use commercially reasonable technical, physical, and
administrative measures like access controls, audit logs, read-only permissions, and
encrypting stored data. For more information on our security practices, please visit
https://www.openai.com/security.
We also take steps to reduce the processing of personal information when training our
models. For example, we remove websites that aggregate large volumes of personal
information and we try to train our models to reject requests for private or sensitive
information about people.
We do not sell training information to third parties, and only disclose portions of the
information when necessary and consistent with our Privacy Policy.
We only keep this information for as long as we need it to serve its intended
purpose. How long we keep this information hinges on factors like its quantity, type,
and sensitivity, the risk of harm from unauthorized use or sharing, whether the
information is still necessary or useful to train or update our models, and any legal
requirements.
Our data controller under the GDPR is OpenAI OpCo, LLC at 3180 18th Street, San
Francisco, CA, United States. For information about our EEA and UK representative for
data protection matters, please see our Privacy Policy. Our Data Protection Officer can
be contacted at [email protected].

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