Just like any online service, hackers can target and break into your accounts on popular AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. TechCrunch has created a comprehensive guide to help you protect yourself if you suspect someone has broken into your account.

We recommend using unique passwords stored in a password manager, and turning on multi-factor authentication (MFA), so that even if someone steals your password, they won’t be able to log in without that second piece of information. ChatGPT and Perplexity offer MFA. Claude doesn’t, because Anthropic’s AI chatbot sends a login link to your email address instead.

To check whether your accounts on AI platforms have been hacked, all three provide similar ways to find out if there's a suspicious device logged into your account. For ChatGPT, open it on your computer's browser, click on your username in the bottom left corner, go to ‘Settings’, then ‘Security and Login’, and finally click on ‘Active Sessions’. You will see where you are logged into your ChatGPT account. If you see any device you don’t recognize, log out of that single device or log out all.

For Claude, open it in your computer’s browser, click on your username in the bottom-left corner, then ‘Settings’, and click on ‘Account’. That’s where you will see your ‘Active sessions’. If you don’t recognize one of them, hover over it, click on the three vertical dots that appear on the right, and click ‘Log out’ or ‘Terminate’. You can also click ‘Log out of all devices’. At this point, you’ll be able to log back into your account using your email address. You will receive an email with a link to log in.

In the case of Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine does not show you where you are logged in. So if you're worried someone may have broken into your account, go to Perplexity in your browser and click your username in the bottom-left corner, then ‘All settings’. Finally, click on ‘Sign out of all sessions’, and then ‘Confirm’. At that point, you can log back in by entering your email address. You will then receive an email with a unique six-digit code to log in.