Pro-AI. Pro-user ownership. Against corporate appropriation of personal data by default.
I fully support the development of AI. However, I do not support treating a user’s personal data as an unspoken, default bonus for the company providing the service.
Let's draw a clear line. An AI company owns its model and has every right to charge me to use it. But paying for access to that model — or sharing information so it can answer my prompt — does not transfer ownership of my preferences, personal history, or the profile inferred from our conversations.
Furthermore, any output generated by AI using my personal information is strictly my property.
Think of it this way: when you rent an excavator to dig a hole on your own land, both the hole and the displaced soil belong to you. The rental company doesn't send a dump truck to haul your dirt away just because you used their machine. AI is a tool. I paid for the tool, so the results belong to me.
How it should work:
AI should be able to work with personal memory stored locally on devices I control, including my computer and phone. It can access that memory during an active session, with my explicit permission, to give me a tailored, useful answer. It should not follow that the company gets to keep a permanent copy, train on it, sell access to it, or turn it into a corporate asset.
Consent must be real:
Cloud storage and any other uses of personal memory must require separate, specific, and informed opt-inconsent. No pre-checked boxes, no terms buried deep in the fine print, and no assumptions that simply using a service means surrendering your data.
If the law does not yet draw this line clearly, Congress should step in and draw it:
⚖️ The model belongs to the company; the person’s data and outputs belong to the person.