Free AI tools like ChatGPT Go promise digital inclusivity in India, but raise concerns on data privacy, overdependence, and hidden costs. Are users truly protected?
Antara Bosu
All that glitters is not gold. This can be applied to the new platforms of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This can be deliberated in the light of ChatGPT Go, which has been available for free in India.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has entered our lives like a dazzling storm, but should this brilliance be exciting or alarming? With features like promising speed, brilliance, and effortless productivity, which have become a huge part of our day-to-day life so swiftly. However, the people have barely even noticed a question – should this shift be celebrated or be a huge concern? Is it going to eliminate the digital divide in this country?
In a world where a single click can generate an entire essay, artwork, solutions to complex mathematical problems, and perform tasks that require the help of specific specialists, a developing country like India benefits immensely, especially given the constant hunger for digital growth. The announcement is made that the ChatGPT Go version will be free for use in India for an entire year, starting from this November. However, the question remains unsolved whether it is a breakthrough or a concern for India?
ChatGPT Go version enjoys the vitality of market expansion, user empowerment, and community growth. As this version is easy to access, this AI tool is thriving unnoticed. With the advantages like access to the latest GPT-5 model, this tool is faster, smarter, and more accurate than its predecessors, along with 10x higher usage limits, image generation, and file uploads. It also provides smoother conversations, expanded memory, and affordability, which is very beneficial for both students and professionals alike.
However, although these advantages sound fantastic, empowering, and efficient, behind this endless shine and glamour hides a dark truth that may have never crossed anyone’s mind that easily. A truth that encourages people to ask if free AI is really free. Or is it just a dazzling offer masking the real cost that we pay? The answer is, unfortunately, very simple, as the data that we provide is the new currency, and our privacy is the new economy.
The free or low-cost access to AI versions encourages people to use it more often, which helps the companies to gather information that is more diverse as well as unique to refine their models and to study user behaviour at a deeper level. India, which has one of the largest young digital populations in the world, is ideal for training and refining such AI tools. This idea is indeed both strategic and powerful. The second important cost lies in overdependency. When a tool is used repeatedly, it becomes habitual. Its users keep returning to it again and again until it gets embedded into their workflow and thinking. Over time, this “habit” evolves into a “necessity,” leading the users to a point where they become unable to compose or write anything without the help of AI assistance.
Then comes the question of privacy and security. Although the reputable companies maintain clear safeguards, there are always some trade-offs. The more users share with AI tools, the more they leave a trail of digital fingerprints. Even when companies say that they don’t use their users’ data for model training, the metadata of users’ behaviour still holds significant value, which the companies often use as per their needs. However, these arguments do not claim that AI tools are harmful. On the contrary, they highlight how AI democratizes and technology can uplift countless individuals.
But being empowered also brings the responsibility of being aware and cautious. But by keeping personal and sensitive information confidential, enabling data training when possible, reading privacy policies before agreeing, deleting chat history regularly, etc., users can protect themselves without giving up the use of AI.
AI is a very powerful tool, and like all powerful tools, it comes with its own consequences. The real cost of “free” AI is not something you pay in a single day. It’s something you pay slowly, quietly, and invisibly. With their data, the users pay in terms of their privacy unknowingly. Users pay the price of their autonomy. Eventually, the users pay with their future.
In this context, the case of Samsung deserves to be cited. Samsung, one of the world’s renowned companies, had banned the internal use of ChatGPT in 2023 due to a data leak. According to the resources, some of their employees had unknowingly entered confidential information into ChatGPT to perform some tasks, but without the knowledge that their data was secretly stored, resulting in the leakage of their trade secrets and sensitive technical details, raising serious concerns about data privacy and security.
Another incident occurred in Italy in 2023 when their data protection authority (Garante) had temporarily banned ChatGPT for violating their privacy laws for collecting and storing personal data without consent and failure to enforce age restrictions for children. To which OpenAI responded by adding privacy notices, user data controls, and age verification. The ban was lifted after these changes.
The blinding sparkle of free AI will continue to shine, but a wise user learns to look beyond all the glitter, shine, and glamour, understands the trade-offs, and reclaims control. In a world where nothing seems to be free, one should always protect the one thing that truly belongs to every individual, which is “digital life.”
(The writer is a Mass Communication student from Rama Devi Women’s University. Views expressed are personal.)