UK department releases a minister's ChatGPT history under FOI

The UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) disclosed a plain-text export of ChatGPT prompts and responses used by science and technology secretary Peter Kyle in his ministerial role, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The department confirmed it held the material and released it in full, treating the chatbot log as departmental record rather than private correspondence, on the reasoning that DSIT holds information under the Act where it relates to the department’s role or functions. The disclosed exchanges covered Kyle asking ChatGPT for podcast recommendations, questions about AI adoption barriers and digital inclusion, and explanations of technical topics including antimatter and quantum mechanics.

It was not the department’s only response on the subject. A separate, earlier request for the complete export of Kyle’s ChatGPT history was refused on cost grounds under section 12 of the Act, before the department pointed requesters instead to the narrower disclosure that was published in full.

Commentators framed the episode as an early test of how 2000-era Freedom of Information law applies to AI tools: a minister’s queries to a chatbot on a government device could count as a “held” record in the same way as an email or a paper file, exposing them to public release regardless of how informal or exploratory the underlying use felt to the official making them. Coverage noted the resulting tension for officials — genuine value in being able to use AI tools to think through problems and draft material, set against the risk that any query becomes a future public document — without any indication that government guidance on ministerial AI use changed as a result.