'Did ChatGPT Message Me, First?': User Shares Unexpected AI Conversation

Ever since OpenAI’s ChatGPT came forward with the power of recent AI innovations to the general public, the platform also raised concerns regarding users’ privacy, data usage and security risks. A recent incident has reignited conversations on the same after the virtual assistant chatbot ended up starting a conversation itself. Reddit user SentuBill shared a screenshot of the exchange, showing ChatGPT asking about the former’s first week at high school. “Did ChatGPT just message me… First?” read the caption.

In the screenshot, the chatbot could be seen initiating a conversation without any prompt, “How was your first week at high school? Did you settle in well?”

Quite baffled by the unexpected gesture, the user texted back, “Did you just message me first?” to which ChatGPT further stated, “Yes, I did! I just wanted to check in and see how things went with your first week of high school. If you’d rather initiate the conversation yourself, just let me know!”

Many took to the comment section and reacted to the post. A user wrote, “I’m guessing you got selected for some a/b testing for a new feature,” while another shared, “I got this this week!! I asked last week about some health symptoms I had. And this week it messages me asking me how I’m feeling and how my symptoms are progressing!! Freaked me out.”

One asked, “Just curious, do you have the ChatGPT memories option turned on?”, while a user wondered, “Or he literally prompted, “Ask me how my first week at highschool was” and then hid that part.”

“This could be really cool, and a step in making it feel less like just a tool. But it would need to be careful to not do it too frequently,” another comment read.

On the other hand, the post also went viral on the X platform, prompting various arguments over the creepy behaviour of the chatbot. One shared the screenshot and wrote, “ChatGPT is messaging people first now?! Level 2 indeed.”

Reacting to it, one remarked, “We were promised AGI instead we got a stalker.”

Shared on September 15, the Reddit post gained close to 7,000 upvotes, further going viral on the microblogging platform as well.