The risk of the "observer effect" from being watched by AI

UIUC researcher Koustuv Saha noted that being watched by AI can also trigger the "observer effect": once users realize their conversations are being recorded or reused, they change how they express themselves. His research found that participants posted less, expressed fewer emotions, and used more "appropriate" language after learning their social media use was being monitored; ChatGPT now has over 800 million weekly users. This sense of being watched erodes trust and weakens AI's value as a private space for confiding, and the author argues for local training, federated learning, and differential privacy to balance innovation and privacy.