18 August 2026

New AI Observatory launches to track what people actually use AI for

• Researchers created a public platform called the AI Observatory that analyzes real conversations people have with popular AI models.
• The Observatory found that AI models handle far more sensitive topics like health advice, harassment, and sexual content than companies publicly report.
• AI companies typically highlight work-related uses in their own reports, creating an incomplete picture of how people actually use these tools.

How it was covered

The AlgorithmMIT Technology Review

Researchers launched the AI Observatory, a public platform analyzing real conversations with popular AI models, to fill the gap left by AI companies' selective reporting. The project found that AI usage differs significantly across models and includes far more sensitive behaviors (health, harassment, sexual content) than company reports capture, which tend to focus only on work-related uses.