Response: Export of Peter Kyle's ChatGPT history
Published 15 February 2025
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foi2025-00038-peter-kyles-chatgpt-history/response-export-of-peter-kyles-chatgpt-history
| Reference number | FOI2025-00038 |
|---|---|
| Date of request | 14 January 2025 |
| Date of response | 11 February 2025 |
| Outcome | Information withheld |
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (the department) received the following request for information which we responded to under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA):
The full history of Peter Kyle’s ChatGPT history, as obtained by exporting the data associated with the account by following OpenAI’s instructions for exporting history here: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/7260999-how-do-i-export-my-chatgpt-history-and-data
Given the secretary of state has said publicly he utilises ChatGPT in his role as tech secretary, there should be no exemptions applicable that this is not government data, even if the account in question is owned by the secretary of state personally: https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/tech-secretary-says-take-flack-ai-expansion-goes-wrong
Our response
We hold information that falls under the scope of your request. However, finding, retrieving and extracting the information would exceed the cost limit set out by section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
Section 12: The scope of your request exceeds the cost limit under FOIA
The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 states that the ‘appropriate limit’ for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is £600 which would equate to 24 hours of work. We have assessed that extracting the information within scope of your request would exceed a charge of £600 or more, triggering the provisions of section 12 of FOIA.
When a user requests an export of their information from ChatGPT, OpenAI provides the user with: (a) an HTML file with a record of their chat history with ChatGPT, (b) a JSON file containing metadata about the user’s interaction with ChatGPT, and (c) other files and attachments shared with the model.
We have calculated that the cost of converting the JSON file in the export into a human readable format and then extracting only the information in the dataset ‘held’ by the Secretary of State on behalf of the department (that is, information relating to Peter Kyle’s official role as Secretary of State) will cost more than the £600 cost limit for central government departments, therefore engaging section 12 of FOIA.
This is because the export of Peter Kyle’s ChatGPT history includes prompts and responses made in both a personal capacity, and in an official capacity as the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.
We only consider information to be ‘held’ under section 3(2)(b) of FOIA[1] where this information relates to the role or functions of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. In determining what information we ‘hold’ we have considered the guidance of the Information Commissioner’s Office on Information you hold for the purposes of FOIA.
This guidance explains that in the case of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne v Information Commissioner and BUAV the First-tier Tribunal’s decision noted in paragraph 48 that ‘there must be an appropriate connection between the information and the authority, so that it can be properly said that the information is held by the authority’.
We cannot disclose information from the export which does not relate to the department’s official business as a public authority as this is not ‘held’ by the department and therefore not subject to FOIA. We therefore must extract and separate information relating to the department’s official business from the JSON file, which in this case exceeds the cost limit.
Advice and assistance
You may wish to narrow your request to avoid triggering the provisions of section 12 of FOIA. We can confirm that if you were to request ‘a plain text copy of prompts and responses made to ChatGPT by Peter Kyle in his capacity as the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology’ we would be able to extract this information from an HTML file within a ChatGPT export without exceeding the cost limit under FOIA. Please contact us at FOI-requests@dsit.gov.uk if you would like to submit a request for information with this amended scope.
[1] Section 3(2) For the purposes of this Act, information is held by a public authority if— (b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.