When ChatGPT Steals Your Speech

by Jezra on March 12, 2026

Expensive Light Reader:

1. Should you received right here from my e-newsletter and have already began studying Kate’s story, skip to Half 2.
2. And for these of you who’d wish to keep away from having your IP stolen (as hers was), right here’s the right way to get ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude to not steal your enter!

You Can’t Make this Stuff Up!

Think about that you just’re the third scheduled speaker at a commencement ceremony. And as you sit onstage, ready to ship your remarks, you abruptly notice that…

…the primary two audio system are giving THE ACTUAL SPEECH you wrote for this event—VERBATIM!

Weird?? Sure, however It Occurred!

Particularly, it occurred to my consumer Kate, who’s a Professor of Occupational Remedy at a highly-regarded healthcare college.

When Kate was requested by her college students to talk at their “white coat” commencement ceremony, she began writing her speech early. She wrote and revised, wrote and revised, and at last determined to do one thing she’d by no means completed earlier than:

She requested ChatGPT for recommendation on the right way to enhance her discuss!!

Right here’s What Kate DIDN’T Do!

What Kate didn’t do, nevertheless, earlier than in search of ChatGPT’s feedback on her speech was to decide out of letting it use her “knowledge” to “enhance and prepare its fashions.” 

What does that mild-sounding sentence really imply? It signifies that ChatGPT (and each different chatbot in the marketplace) can use something you ask or inform it in any manner it needs, UNLESS YOU TELL IT “NO!“

So, have YOU advised your favourite chatbot that it could possibly’t use your enter for “coaching”?

I’ll wager you haven’t (and I’m betting that as a result of I hadn’t, both).

The truth is, it hadn’t even occurred to me {that a} easy (however under-publicized) opt-out would shield my concepts and mental property from being plastered all around the web till I heard Kate’s story.

And talking of Kate’s story….

• How did her speech find yourself in two different folks’s mouths? 
• What did she DO about it??
• And how did she really feel???

Kate Takes Over the Story

Once more, think about that you just’re sitting on stage, ready to talk, and also you abruptly notice that the audio system earlier than you might be saying the precise issues YOU deliberate to say, utilizing your precise phrases.

As Kate tells it,

It was surprising. I used to be horrified. I used to be… at first, I used to be dumbfounded that this might happen. It took me a second to simply work out what was taking place. After which I used to be feeling that it’s going to be a humiliation to rise up and say the identical factor the dean and the provost had simply stated. 

However I additionally thought, these are my phrases! It’s my speech, and I’m going to personal it!

So I gave my identical speech and the scholars clapped with a variety of enthusiasm. They know me nicely, they usually’re keen on me, so I knew that my phrases meant so much to them. Whereas when the directors spoke, it simply felt rote. They have been requested to provide a speech, so they only did it and I assumed, they should have ChatGPT write all their speeches.

How Did This Occur?

Once more, in Kate’s phrases,

My guess is that the dean and the provost simply put key phrases into ChatGPT, and requested it to write down their speeches. Phrases like “Occupational remedy program.” “Doctoral and masters college students.” The title of the College. “White coat ceremony.”

And all of these components have been in my speech, which might be why ChatGTP used it verbatim.

So Right here’s Some Recommendation from a ChatGPT Survivor

Now I inform our college students to ensure something you set by ChatGPT that you’re not sharing it broadly with the world. Like your resumes, or anything. As a result of as soon as you set it out, it’s on the market.

Need to Defend Your self?

Listed below are OptOut instructions for ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude:

ChatGPT—

1. Should you’re on the internet (signed in), click on your profile icon
2. Choose Settings
3. Go to Information Controls
4. Flip off “Enhance the mannequin for everybody”

****

1. Should you’re off the online (signed out), click on the ? icon within the bottom-right nook
2. Choose Settings
3. Flip off “Enhance the mannequin for everybody”

Perplexity—

1. Log into Perplexity in a browser.​
2. Click on your profile avatar (prime proper) to open Account / Settings.
3. Go to the Preferences or Settings web page (search for privateness or AI knowledge utilization).
4. Discover the AI knowledge retention or AI Information Utilization toggle.
5. Flip this toggle off to decide out of getting your searches and interactions used to enhance AI fashions.

Picture by Getty Pictures | Unsplash+