Legal expert issues warning to anyone who’s tried the viral AI barbie trend

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past week or so, you will have no doubt come across the viral new AI 'Barbie' trend that is absolutely taking over social media right now.

In case the trend has somehow passed you by, it basically sees ChatGPT users pop in a prompt asking the generative artificial intelligence chatbot to create an action figure and its accompanying accessories based on the likeness of any photo you upload to create your very own mini-me.

Needless to say, the trend has taken off online, with many people, celebrities, influencers, brands, and major companies alike hopping on the craze to - quite literally - repackage themselves.

The new AI 'Barbie' trend is taking over social media right now (Tyla/ChatGPT)

Now, while the viral trend may just seem like a little bit of harmless fun, it's clear there may be some not-so-obvious dangers surrounding it.

So, to get the rundown on all the issues we should be aware of, we've spoken to a legal expert who has explained exactly what to look out for in ChatGPT’s terms of service before trying the trend yourself.

A legal expert has since shared a warning over hopping on board the viral trend (Tyla/ChatGPT)

Plagiarism and copyright infringement

Speaking on behalf of Ecommerce Platforms, Josilda Ndreaj, a licensed attorney and independent legal consultant, explained: "Currently, no legislation requires ChatGPT to publicly declare what its model is trained on.

"So, because it doesn’t reveal its sources, we can’t know if ChatGPT delivers or processes content that is protected by copyright laws."

This means that if someone identifies copyrighted content from ChatGPT, they can make a claim to remove that content.

"ChatGPT’s Terms state that user input, even if copyrighted, is used to improve the service and train the model; and the user can’t opt out of this," Josilda continued, adding that ChatGPT’s Terms say that a user owns all input and output content (if the input content is already used legally), but that doesn’t guarantee that the user owns the copyright to that input and output content.

"In addition, users can’t pass off anything from ChatGPT as 'human-generated'," she added.

ChatGPT collects information from inputs, including personal information, to 'potentially train its models', according to the Privacy Policy (Tyla/ChatGPT)

Security and confidentiality

Josilda also explained that ChatGPT collects information from inputs, including personal information, to 'potentially train its models (according to the Privacy Policy)'.

"The user can opt out," the expert pointed out before noting: 'The situation changes if data gets submitted through API connections (ChatGPT Enterprise, Team, etc); that’s because ChatGPT doesn’t use inputs from business customers to train models.

"ChatGPT has security measures in place but doesn’t explicitly address responsibility for a security breach. It all depends on regional laws."

ChatGPT users own their input and output content so they must ensure the content doesn’t violate any laws (Tyla/ChatGPT)

Usage

It's also important to bear in mind usage when it comes to hopping on these AI trends as Josilda says: "ChatGPT users own their input and output content; the users, therefore, must ensure the content doesn’t violate any laws.

"Users can’t claim the content is human-generated, but you don’t have to say it’s AI-generated either.

"As long as users follow regional laws and the Terms of Use, ChatGPT content can be used for commercial purposes, on social media, for paid advertising, and other channels. It’s advised you fact-check, make references, and abide by laws before publishing content from ChatGPT."