What terms of service / privacy policy apply to Playground?

API
1

I am not clear if Playground is a non-API or an API endpoint.

From API data usage policies the following three points are made

  1. OpenAI will not use data submitted by customers via our API to train or improve our models, unless you explicitly decide to share your data with us for this purpose. You can opt-in to share data.
  2. Any data sent through the API will be retained for abuse and misuse monitoring purposes for a maximum of 30 days, after which it will be deleted (unless otherwise required by law).
  3. The OpenAI API processes user prompts and completions, as well as training data submitted to fine-tune models via the Files endpoint. We refer to this data as API data.

Here is my question:
Does the API-data-usage-policy only refer to the Files endpoint for fine-tuning?
Specifically, does it apply to https://platform.openai.com/ services such as Playground.
i.e. is it correct to say that no inputs, outputs, or user interaction from users of Playground will be used to improve the models or services?

Fun experiment:
Feed my question into Playground and it will tell you not to worry but if you click the thumbs up it toasts you for helping it improve the model. Feed it into ChatGPT and it says that Playground is NOT covered by the API data usage policy and interactions with it can be used to improve the model.

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2

The playground is essentially a wrapper for the API, so any usage on the playground counts as API usage. :laughing:
I understand that chatGPT’s answers about the privacy policy may have caused confusion, ChatGPT’s knowledge cutoff is September 2021, and back then, OpenAI was able to use your data. However, OpenAI has since changed their policy and will now only use data from users who specifically opt-in.

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3

The question is an important one to everyone. And especially to corporate users.

It is a simple question: Is data entered into Playground used to improve the model or not?

It deserves a simple yes or a no from OpenAI. Still looking forward to it.

4

Is there a place I can find an answer to this question?

5

The playground is an API endpoint. Click the link in the original post to find more information.

6

It’s more accurate to say, “The playground calls an api endpoint”. Almost all non-static websites are split into a web-service front-end which calls an API backend. So playground (web-service) can call lots of different backends (gpt-4, gpt-3.5-turbo). APIs are usually accessed by curl or sdk (python, go) code, or by a webservice frontend. OpenAI clearly says that ChatGPT and Dalle (webservices) which call backend APIs are NOT covered by the API Data Usage policy. They say the “No data supplied to APIs are used in training” loud, but say the “Web services which call APIs have different terms” very quietly. Mostly there is a lot of confusion about the API / Webserver split, and they don’t anywhere list which web services follow which Privacy policy (having only named Dalle and ChatGPT as ‘examples’ that don’t follow API Data Policy). I would therefore assume, if it’s got a user interface (GUI) then it’s probably following Privacy terms similar to ChatGPT, but only a clearly written Privacy policy can determine this conclusively, not the opinions of the user base.

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7

It’s clearly opt-out, not opt-in.

(c) Use of Content to Improve Services. We do not use Content that you provide to or receive from our API (“API Content”) to develop or improve our Services. We may use Content from Services other than our API (“Non-API Content”) to help develop and improve our Services. You can read more here about how Non-API Content may be used to improve model performance. If you do not want your Non-API Content used to improve Services, you can opt out by filling out this form. Please note that in some cases this may limit the ability of our Services to better address your specific use case."

We tried filling out the opt-out form but never got a response to confirm. It’s a “we’ll get back to you” not a “you have opted out” flow. And these terms change every two months or so.

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8

Indeed,
you’re phrasing is more accurate than mine, but it still gets the point across :laughing:

Could you tell me how you get from:

We do not use Content that you provide to or receive from our API (“API Content”) to develop or improve our Services.

To

It’s clearly opt-out, not opt-in.

I have a hard time understanding your logic

9

“If you do not want your Non-API Content used to improve Services, you can opt out…”

For API calls, openAI wouldnt actually recieve the human feedback of what was done with the completion/response. Although i believe there is an opt in to let openAI train directly on your inputs. I should have been more clear.

10

Yeah i see what you mean, the wording here is vague and confusing, they’ve updated the help page a week ago to clarify what they mean

When you use our non-API consumer services ChatGPT or DALL-E, we may use the data you provide us to improve our models. You can request to opt-out of having your data used to improve our non-API services by filling out this form with your organization ID and email address associated with the owner of the account.

11

I see this is still open. @kbroughton have you found the clear answer elsewhere?

12

In the intervening year, a message has been added to the lower right of the playground’s parameter interface bar, noting new policy, last updated July 21, 2023:

  • API and Playground requests will not be used to train our models. Learn more

Playground inputs go to the moderation endpoint unless you opt out – and still go to a content flagging system.