ChatGPT Bug: OpenAI Takes Chatbot Offline Briefly Following Leak Of Users' Payment Information

ChatGPT is now back in operation after the bug was patched.

ChatGPT has been developed by Microsoft=backed research firm OpenAI.

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, recently experienced an incident in which certain users' payment information may have been exposed due to a bug. The company took ChatGPT offline to fix the issue. The bug was in an open-source library called "redis-py," which allowed some users to view titles from another active user's chat history. It was also possible for the first message of a newly-created conversation to be visible in someone else's chat history if both users were active around the same time.

The company patched the bug, and ChatGPT is back in operation, with the exception of a few hours of history. However, upon further investigation, OpenAI discovered that the same bug may have caused the unintentional visibility of payment-related information of 1.2 per cent of ChatGPT Plus subscribers who were active during a specific nine-hour window. Payment-related information includes first and last name, email address, payment address, the last four digits (only) of a credit card number, and credit card expiration date.

Before taking ChatGPT offline, some users may have been able to see another active user's payment information. The affected users' subscription confirmation emails were sent to the wrong users, and these emails contained the last four digits of another user's credit card number. OpenAI confirmed that full credit card numbers were not exposed at any time.

The company has reached out to notify affected users that their payment information may have been exposed. OpenAI has assured its users that there is no ongoing risk to users' data. The company apologized to users and the ChatGPT community.

Meanwhile, Opera, the popular Web browser firm, announced that it has introduced new AI-powered features for its desktop browsers, Opera, and Opera GX. These features include AI Prompts, as well as sidebar access to ChatGPT and ChatSonic, to enhance users' browsing experience.

According to Opera, these new tools are available for early access on all desktop platforms. The Opera Browser's native AI Prompts feature can help users summarise or explain a long and confusing text, be it a paragraph, an entire article, or even a website. AI Prompts is easily accessible either by highlighting the text or directly from the address bar.