What happened
Moxie Marlinspike introduced Confer, a new conversational AI platform designed to emulate the user experience of existing large language models like ChatGPT and Claude. Confer differentiates itself by explicitly prohibiting the use of user conversations for model training or advertising purposes, thereby altering the data handling conditions previously associated with similar AI services. This changes the default data retention and usage policies for conversational AI interactions.
Why it matters
The introduction of Confer creates a new operational constraint for data governance and compliance teams, as it establishes a precedent for user data non-retention and non-utilization in conversational AI. This reduces the visibility of data usage policies across AI platforms and increases the due diligence burden on procurement and legal departments to verify data handling practices. It also weakens the implicit control over data lifecycle management for AI interactions.
