Workers are secretly using ChatGPT, AI and it will pose big risks for tech leaders
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Soaring investment from big tech companies in artificial intelligence and chatbots — amid massive layoffs and a growth decline — has left many chief information security officers in a whirlwind.
With OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft‘s Bing AI, Google‘s Bard and Elon Musk’s plan for his own chatbot making headlines, generative AI is seeping into the workplace, and chief information security officers need to approach this technology with caution and prepare with necessary security measures.
The tech behind GPT, or generative pretrained transformers, is powered by large language models (LLMs), or algorithms that produce a chatbot’s human-like conversations. But not every company has its own GPT, so companies need to monitor how workers use this technology.
People are going to use generative AI if they find it useful to do their work, says Michael Chui, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, comparing it to the way workers use personal computers or phones.
“Even when it’s not sanctioned or blessed by IT, people are finding [chatbots] useful,” Chui said.
“Throughout history, we’ve found technologies which are so compelling that individuals are willing to pay for it,” he said. “People were buying mobile phones long before businesses said, ‘I will supply this to you.’ PCs were similar, so we’re seeing the equivalent now with generative AI.”
As a result, there’s “catch up” for companies in terms of how the are going to approach security measures, Chui added.
Whether it’s standard business practice like monitoring what information is shared on an AI platform or integrating a company-sanctioned GPT in the workplace, experts think there are certain areas where CISOs and companies should start.
Start with the basics of information security
CISOs — already combating burnout and stress — deal with enough problems, like potential cybersecurity attacks and increasing automation needs. As AI and GPT move into the workplace, CISOs can start with the security basics.
Chui said companies can license use of an existing AI platform, so they can monitor what employees say to a chatbot and make sure that the information shared is protected.
“If you’re a corporation, you don’t want your employees prompting a publicly available chatbot with confidential information,” Chui said. “So, you could put technical means in place, where you can license the software and have an enforceable legal agreement about where your data goes or doesn’t go.”
Licensing use of software comes with additional checks and balances, Chui said. Protection of confidential information, regulation of where the information gets stored, and guidelines for how employees can use the software — all are standard procedure when companies license software, AI or not.
“If you have an agreement, you can audit the software, so you can see if they’re protecting the data in the ways that you want it to be protected,” Chui said.
Most companies that store information with cloud-based software already do this, Chui said, so getting ahead and offering employees an AI platform that’s company-sanctioned means a business is already in-line with existing industry practices.
How to create or integrate a customized GPT
One security option for companies is to develop their own GPT, or hire companies that create this technology to make a custom version, says Sameer Penakalapati, chief executive officer at Ceipal, an AI-driven talent acquisition platform.
In specific functions like HR, there are multiple platforms from Ceipal to Beamery’s TalentGPT, and companies may consider Microsoft’s plan to offer customizable GPT. But despite increasingly high costs, companies may also want to create their own technology.
If a company creates its own GPT, the software will have the exact information it wants employees to have access to. A company can also safeguard the information that employees feed into it, Penakalapati said, but even hiring an AI company to generate this platform will enable companies to feed and store information safely, he added.
Whatever path a company chooses, Penakalapati said that CISOs should remember that these machines perform based on how they have been taught. It’s important to be intentional about the data you’re giving the technology.
“I always tell people to make sure you have technology that provides information based on unbiased and accurate data,” Penakalapati said. “Because this technology is not created by accident.”
The U.S. has placed major chip export restrictions on Huawei and Chinese firms over the past few years. This has cut off companies’ access to critical semiconductors.
Jaap Arriens | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Taiwan has added China’s Huawei and SMIC to its trade blacklist in a move that further aligns it with U.S. trade policy and comes amid growing tensions with Beijing.
The two leading Chinese chip firms have been put on Taiwan’s “Strategic High-Tech Commodities Entity List,” along with many of their international subsidiaries.
Taiwan’s current regulations require licenses from regulators before domestic firms can ship products to parties named on the entity list.
In a statement on its website, Taiwan’s International Trade Administration said that Huawei and SMIC were among the 601 new foreign entities, blacklisted due to their involvement in arms proliferation activities and other national security concerns.
Huawei and SMIC are also on a U.S. trade blacklist and have been impacted by Washington’s sweeping controls on advanced chips. Companies such as contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co already follow U.S. export restrictions.
However, the addition of Huawei and SMIC to the Taiwan blacklist is likely aimed at the reinforcement of this policy and a tightening of existing loopholes, Ray Wang, an independent semiconductor and tech analyst, told CNBC.
He added that the new domestic export controls could also raise the punishment for any potential breaches in the future.
TSMC had been embroiled in controversy in October last year when semiconductor research firm TechInsights found a TSMC-made chip in a Huawei AI training card.
Following the discovery, the U.S. Commerce Department ordered TSMC to halt Chinese clients’ access to chips used for AI services, according to a report from Reuters. TSMC could also reportedly face a $1 billion as penalty to settle a U.S. investigation into the matter.
Huawei has been working to create viable alternatives to Nvidia‘s general processing units used for AI. But, experts say the company’s advancement has been limited by export controls and a lack of scale and capabilities in the domestic chip ecosystem.
Still, Huawei is believed to have acquired several million GPU dies from TSMC for its AI chips by using previous loopholes before they were discovered, according to Paul Triolo, partner and senior vice president for China at advisory firm DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group.
A die refers to a small piece of silicon material that serves as the foundation for building processors and contains the intricate circuitry and components necessary to perform computations.
The Taiwanese government’s crackdown on exports to SMIC and Huawei also comes amid tense geopolitical tensions with Mainland China, which regards the democratically governed island as its own territory to be reunited by force, if necessary.
In April, the U.S. reaffirmed its commitment to support the existing status quo as China conducted large-scale military exercises off the coast of the island.
In statements reported by state media on Sunday, China’s top political adviser Wang Huning echoed Beijing’s position, calling for the promotion of national reunification with Taiwan and for resolute opposition to Taiwan independence.
An AI assistant on display at Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona.
Angel Garcia | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Artificial intelligence is shaking up the advertising business and “unnerving” investors, one industry leader told CNBC.
“I think this AI disruption … unnerving investors in every industry, and it’s totally disrupting our business,” Mark Read, the outgoing CEO of British advertising group WPP, told CNBC’s Karen Tso on Tuesday.
The advertising market is under threat from emerging generative AI tools that can be used to materialize pieces of content at rapid pace. The past couple of years has seen the rise of a number of AI image generators, including OpenAI’s DALL-E, Google’s Veo and Midjourney.
In his first interview since announcing he would step down as WPP boss, Read said that AI is “going to totally revolutionize our business.”
“AI is going to make all the world’s expertise available to everybody at extremely low cost,” he said at London Tech Week. “The best lawyer, the best psychologist, the best radiologist, the best accountant, and indeed, the best advertising creatives and marketing people often will be an AI, you know, will be driven by AI.”
Read said that 50,000 WPP employees now use WPP Open, the company’s own AI-powered marketing platform.
“That, I think, is my legacy in many ways,” he added.
Structural pressure on creative parts of the ad business are driving industry consolidation, Read also noted, adding that companies would need to “embrace” the way in which AI would impact everything from creating briefs and media plans to optimizing campaigns.
A report from Forrester released in June last year showed that more than 60% of U.S. ad agencies are already making use of generative AI, with a further 31% saying they’re exploring use cases for the technology.
‘Huge transformation’
Read is not alone in this view. Advertising is undergoing a “huge transformation” due to the disruptive effects of AI, French advertising giant Publicis Groupe’s CEO Maurice Levy told CNBC at the Viva Tech conference in Paris.
He noted that AI image and video generation tools are speeding up content production drastically, while automated messaging systems can now achieve “personalization at scale like never before.”
However, the Publicis chief stressed that AI should only be considered a tool that people can use to augment their lives.
“We should not believe that AI is more than a tool,” he added.
And while AI is likely to impact some jobs, Levy ultimately thinks it will create more roles than it destroys.
“Will AI replace me, and will AI kill some jobs? I think that AI, yes, will destroy some jobs,” Levy conceded. However, he added that, “more importantly, AI will transform jobs and will create more jobs. So the net balance will be probably positive.”
This, he says, would be in keeping with the labor impacts of previous technological inventions like the internet and smartphones.
“There will be more autonomous work,” Levy added.
Still, Nicole Denman Greene, analyst at Gartner, warns brands should be wary of causing a negative reaction from consumers who are skeptical of AI’s impact on human creativity.
According to a Gartner survey from September, 82% of consumers said firms using generative AI should prioritize preserving human jobs, even if it means lower profits.
“Pivot from what AI can do to what it should do in advertising,” Greene told CNBC.
“What it should do is help create groundbreaking insights, unique execution to reach diverse and niche audiences, push boundaries on what ‘marketing’ is and deliver more brand differentiated, helpful and relevant personalized experiences, including deliver on the promise of hyper-personalization.”
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