ChatGPT
The AI chat assistant most people have already tried. Fast at drafting, summarizing and translating, and confident when it is wrong.
Never for sensitive material
Never put this into it
Do not type, paste, upload, or dictate:
- The real name of any witness, survivor, informant, or activist
- Full witness statements or interview transcripts
- Case files, legal filings, or investigation notes
- Exact addresses, GPS coordinates, or descriptions detailed enough to show where a specific person lives, hides, or works
- Phone numbers, national ID numbers, or passport numbers
- Photos and videos that show an identifiable face if that person's safety depends on staying hidden
Treat this tool as if a stranger could read back anything you put into it, because by default the setting that lets your words train the model is turned on.
A safer tool to use instead
ChatGPT is a chat window. You type a request, it writes back. It drafts text, summarizes a long document, and translates, in seconds.
It also invents things. Ask it for the wording of a law or the source of a quotation and it will often produce something fluent, specific and wrong, with nothing on screen to mark the difference. Use it for a first draft you will check, never for a fact you will publish unchecked.
For a recorded interview or a testimony, use Whisper on your own computerWhisper (running on your own computer)Safe for sensitive materialOpen sourceMITHas a free version: Completely free. You need about 2GB of disk for a usable model.View tool instead. The recording stays in the room it was made in.
What happens to your data
Where this data goes
- OpenAI servers (United States)
Trains on what you type?
By default yes, but there is a setting to opt out.
How long it is kept
Settings → Data Controls → "Improve the model for everyone" is turned ON by default, so you have to go find it and switch it off yourself if you do not want your chats used this way.
Conversations are kept and may be used to train future models. Deleted chats are generally removed from OpenAI systems within 30 days, except where kept longer for legal, safety, or security reasons.
Account required
- An email address
- A phone number
Getting it, and using it in Iraq
Access in Iraq
- Paid plans typically need a card issued outside Iraq.
- Signing up needs a phone number.
It is on OpenAI's official supported-countries list and is not geo-blocked. The free plan needs no card at all.
Payment is the practical obstacle we have heard about: organisations in the region report that Iraqi-issued Visa and Mastercard cards, including local bank and Qi Card products, are often declined by the payment processor, so expect to need a card issued abroad (or a virtual card service) for any paid plan. This is not something OpenAI documents publicly. It is a pattern reported by users, not a confirmed policy.
Language quality
No one has published a measurement for this.
Arabic (Modern Standard)
No per-language accuracy figure for Arabic was found in OpenAI's published model documentation checked for this entry: the GPT-4o system card contains no per-language MMLU or equivalent breakdown, and no independent benchmark was run. Untested.
Iraqi Arabic
No dialect-specific benchmark for Iraqi colloquial Arabic exists or was checked for this entry. Untested.
Kurdish (Sorani)
No benchmark or vendor documentation on Kurdish Sorani performance was found or checked for this entry. Untested.
Sources
- Supported countries and territoriesOpenAI
- Data controls FAQOpenAI Help Center
- ChatGPT PricingOpenAI
Last checked: 2026-08-30