AI Vocabulary · 06 Own Your AI
What is Training on Your Data?
When a provider uses what you type or upload to improve its future models. Often a setting, sometimes a contract term.
Some AI services may use your conversations and uploads to improve their future models. Whether they do depends on the product, the plan and your settings. Consumer apps often allow it by default or ask you to opt out; business plans and API access usually exclude it by default and say so in the contract.
Once data has gone into training, it can't simply be taken back out of a model. That is why the setting matters before you start, not after.
Why it matters for you
If confidential material is used for training, fragments could in rare cases resurface, and in any case you have given away control over how it is used. For client data, personal data and trade secrets that is usually not acceptable.
Own it
Check three things for every AI tool your team uses: is training on our data switched off, is it written in the terms or a data processing agreement, and who in our company can change that setting? Write the answers down in your AI policy.
Where it comes from
The question became public in 2023. On 1 March 2023 OpenAI announced that data sent through its API would no longer be used to train its models by default, after customers raised concerns. Since then "Do you train on my data?" has become a standard question in every AI purchase, and many providers answer it in their business terms.
Related
Your AI Learning Hub
Learn the whole AI Vocabulary, step by step, and build with it. Build it. Own it.