Staying safe with AI
Hallucinations, privacy, scams, and what you should never paste into a chat box.
AI is useful and AI is risky. Both things are true. Here's a short guide to using it without getting burned.
Hallucinations are real
AI sometimes invents things — fake quotes, made-up sources, lawsuits that never happened, a fictional book by a real author. It does this confidently. This is called a "hallucination."
Rule: if it matters (medical, legal, financial, factual), verify with a real source. Treat AI like a smart friend with a poor memory — great for ideas, not the final word.
What not to paste
Do not paste, into any public AI tool:
- Passwords, API keys, private keys, recovery phrases.
- Social Security numbers, government ID numbers, full credit card numbers.
- Confidential work documents covered by NDA.
- Other people's private information (medical, financial, personal).
- Anything you'd hate to see leaked.
Free consumer AI tools may use your conversations to improve their models. Even when they don't, your data is sitting on someone else's servers. Assume "private" means "private from other users," not "private from the company."
Watch out for AI-powered scams
- Voice cloning — a 30-second voicemail is enough to fake your voice. If a "family member" calls asking for money urgently, hang up and call them directly.
- Phishing emails — AI writes flawless, personalized phishing. Be more suspicious, not less, of unexpected messages with links.
- Fake images and video — assume anything shocking might be fake. Check reputable sources before sharing.
A safety rule of thumb
- High stakes? Verify. Numbers, names, dates, citations, code that runs in production.
- Low stakes? Send it. A casual email, a brainstorm, a recipe idea.
The settings worth checking
Most AI tools have a setting like "do not use my chats for training." Find it. Turn it on. In ChatGPT it's under Settings → Data Controls. In Gemini, under Activity. In Claude, training on chats is off by default.
You don't need to fear AI. You just need to treat it like the internet: useful, fast, and not always to be trusted.