Global Courant 2023-05-02 08:05:00
SUWON – Samsung Electronics is banning employees from using popular generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT after discovering that staff had uploaded sensitive code to the platform, marking a setback to the proliferation of such technology in the workplace.
The Suwon, South Korea-based company informed staff at one of its largest divisions about the new policy on Monday through a memo reviewed by Bloomberg News.
The company is concerned that data sent to such AI platforms, including Google Bard and Bing, is stored on remote servers, making it difficult to retrieve and delete, and could eventually be passed on to other users. be revealed, the document said.
The company conducted a survey last month about the use of AI tools internally and said 65 percent of respondents believe such services pose a security risk.
Earlier in April, Samsung engineers accidentally leaked internal source code by uploading it to ChatGPT, according to the memo.
It’s unclear what the information entailed and a Samsung representative declined to comment.
“Interest in generative AI platforms like ChatGPT has grown internally and externally,” Samsung told staff.
“While this interest focuses on the usefulness and efficiency of these platforms, there are also growing concerns about the security risks of generative AI.”
Samsung is just the latest major company to raise concerns about the technology.
In February, just a few months after OpenAI’s chatbot service sparked a storm of interest in the technology, a number of Wall Street banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp, and Citigroup, banned or restricted its use.
Italy also banned the use of ChatGPT over privacy concerns, though it has reversed its stance in recent days.
The new Samsung rules prohibit the use of generative AI systems on company-owned computers, tablets and phones, as well as internal networks.
They do not affect the company’s devices sold to consumers, such as Android smartphones and Windows laptops.
Samsung asked employees using ChatGPT and other tools on personal devices not to submit company-related information or personal data that could reveal its intellectual property.
