> What informs reservations about the use of OpenAI models?

Three things. For one, I have no reason to take them at their word that they aren’t saving data to train on. Two is that OpenAI will shut down one day, and thus I would like any services I run to outlive them. Third and finally, I have hardware and it’d be a waste not to use it. As a bonus, I find it hypocritical a company that benefits so heavily from open source would hide away their models as closed source in fear of copycats.

> For one, I have no reason to take them at their word that they aren’t saving data to train on.

How are you able to trust cloud providers(even VPS or managed bare metal ones)? I have seen the same sentiment among bigger companies who happily store all users data in the cloud.

I don’t. Any data I purposefully store in the cloud that has any significance I store encrypted. I also do my best to minimize my exposure to non-E2EE services for important purposes, and self-host when possible.

>they do not use customer data for training and that they delete it after 30 days, anyway.

I don't use X, just keep it around, 'just in case' for 30 days.

as someone who refers back to previous chats quite frequently i’m glad they do this and would use a feature to extend that period of time.

It’s API calls not their user chat portal. You can’t access the stored data, they say they keep it around for 30 days in case of abuse so they can refer back to it to verify and take action.

This industry has an atrocious track record of claiming to respect privacy, and then doing something entirely different. I have no reason to think OpenAI are lying, but it would still be wise to be extremely cautious of putting sensitive data in their hands.

Given the narrative and the place (HN) you’re saying, I’m betting you don’t use Google for storing your data either, but the vast majority of the world does. For someone who trusts Google I am almost there in how much I trust OpenAI to the same level as well. Doesn’t mean I think they’re the good guys, but that I am not worried about the risk that much.

So, basically, you don’t care about the privacy of your digital data. That is fine, but it represents an extreme position regardless of how many people follow this path.

I think killing animals and eating them is an extreme position too but it’s considered obnoxious to say that, so how is this any different?

it’s not an extreme position. it’sa position shared by significant numbers of people worldwide, as is evident from the number of customers of these platforms you feel threatened by. it’s only considered “extreme” in the echo chamber of HN.

Sure it is from a 10 point scale.

0 - Full privacy off the grid

9 - Brain implant with all data shared to the world

8.5 - Allowing Google to have and scan for ads and government perusal all of your personal emails, written thoughts, location info, friends and accomplices, calendar, photographs, etc