In recent months, the famous ChatGPT entered our lives. This is a sort of an upgraded search engine, which, unlike Google, does not display links to the search results, but directly the answer. Its answer relies on AI and a search all over the web, in order to find the answer, based on a specially developed algorithm.

First, distinction must be made between ChatGPT and DALL-E 2 and the other AI products that are flooding the market recently. DALL-E 2 and similar tools are AI tools that allow us to create images according to the settings we provide to the tool, and it, based on the settings, creates the image.

The chat, as its name suggests, is a tool for conducting a conversation. A bit like the customer service bot of commercial companies, but much (much) more advanced. The chat allows us to conduct almost a conversation, and receive written answers, and not simply results or links leading to the answer. With the help of the chat ,you can get an answer to general questions such as ‘what will the weather be like in London on 20.5.23?’, ask it for background on a historical event, or even write an article or a business plan in various fields. In addition, you can use chat as a tool for writing a software code or even short stories.

The ease of use, the technology and the many uses that the chat allows us, make it different from other search tools, in that it ‘creates’ the answer. And here lies one of the main problems of this tool. While the Google search engine directs us to other sites, which give the answer, here the chat itself gives the answer, and the user does not know from where or on what basis it was given. This creates a situation in which, in the event of an error, it is not possible to know the source, except for the fact that it was given by the chat. This move creates new legal, moral and ethical questions, which affect the entire industry.

This is somewhat similar to the beginning of the wave of autonomous vehicles, when the question of responsibility arose in the event of an accident involving an autonomous vehicle – is the responsibility upon the vehicle manufacturer or the programmer who wrote the vehicle’s driving and control software. If we compare this to a chat, here questions arise not only in the field of intellectual property, but also the legal responsibility in the case of using the chat and its results. Does a code written by chat belong to the programmer or to Microsoft, the owner of ChatGPT? Is the responsibility for the products on the creator or the owner of the chat?

There will be those who say that this does not make a fundamental change, because many programmers already use GitHub and similar sites, in relation to programming. But this is a tie breaker. In our case, it is not a code that has already been written and is in free use, but a code, or a product, created especially for the user and according to his questions and needs, so that the connection between the product and the creator cannot be severed.

In this case – who will be responsible?

Additional questions also arise in relation to project pricing and transparency vis-à-vis the work client. For example, if a person asks a software company to write a code for him for a certain operation, is he obliged to tell the work client that the code, or the product, was created by the chat?

Moreover, the software firm prices the work according to ‘man hours’. From now on, will the pricing of work in the industry change because it is done, or can be done, by automated tools?

The legislator, as well as the industry as a whole, should take this into account and act accordingly.

And if it seems to you that this is something that has no effect, let’s do a little experiment – after reading the article, will your opinion on it change if you know that it was all written by ChatGPT, in response to the question – what are the legal difficulties in using ChatGPT?

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Adv. Idan Ben-Yacov of Ben-Yacov Law Firm handles transactions and provides consultation in the worlds of fintech, cryptocurrency and NFTs; family wealth management; real estate; investments in Israel and abroad; privacy law; ongoing corporate representation; startup and mature companies; and more.