As crypto embraces AI, a major exchange scraps its ChatGPT integration because “it’s very dangerous”
As artificial intelligence eclipses crypto as the next big thing, digital asset-focused companies such as the VC firm Paradigm are scrambling to capitalize on the hype wave.
Some are issuing warnings about the nascent technology. Bitget, the Seychelles-based crypto exchange, has killed its integration of ChatGPT—the generative A.I. tool created by Sam Altman’s OpenAI—into its customer service products, citing misinformation and falsification of facts.
“If you [base] your decision-making solely on A.I., it’s very dangerous at this moment,” said Gracy Chen, Bitget’s managing director. “When A.I. is too integrated here, people just become too lazy and don’t do their own research and own those decisions.”
Bitget is a leading derivatives exchange, meaning it provides advanced financial products based on the value of underlying assets like Bitcoin and Ether, rather than the spot price of the cryptocurrencies. It also offers a popular product called copy trading, where users can mimic other traders’ strategies.
Chen said Bitget has been experimenting with implementing A.I. into its backend platform, such as training A.I. models with the history of its existing successful traders and using the output to help others. Like at other crypto companies, Chen said Bitget has been investing in A.I. tech through its venture arm, Foresight Ventures, including $10 million in the Web3 training service Fetch.ai.
In early April, Bitget also initiated a test to evaluate the potential of ChatGPT, integrating the tool to manage its customer inquiries through automated replies. Bitget’s team quickly realized the limitations of the product, especially because much of its data is pulled from before September 2021.
ChatGPT began offering misleading or incomplete responses to customer queries. When one user asked for examples of prospective cryptocurrencies to consider, ChatGPT included the failed coin Luna on its recommended list.
When Fortune asked the same question on May 30, ChatGPT no longer included Luna, although it did respond that Luna “has also gained attention for its innovative approach to blockchain technology and its focus on fostering adoption in real-world cases” when asked whether it was a trusted crypto project.
Another example showcases the limitations of ChatGPT’s dataset. When a user asks, “Is FTX a trusted crypto exchange,” ChatGPT responds that “FTX is generally considered a reputable and trusted cryptocurrency exchange”—a query replicated by Fortune.
According to Bitget, 80% of crypto traders who used the ChatGPT implementation reported a negative experience. The exchange suspended the experiment after two weeks.
While the limitations of ChatGPT’s September 2021 knowledge cutoff were clear, Chen attributed the decision to “information gaps in a large organization like ours.”
“When we were implementing ChatGPT into customer interaction, that’s more a decision made by the customer service department,” she told Fortune. “The research team and I might have more thoughts and insights on the limitations of A.I.”
Despite the failed integration, Chen said that Bitget will continue to experiment with A.I., including through its new investment, Fetch.ai. She speculated that the broader technology could have as large an impact on crypto as the rise of DeFi in the summer of 2020.
“This is a new criteria or sector in crypto that can have important applications that will shape how this industry works,” she told Fortune.
