While Google continues to develop its own artificial intelligence chatbot called Bard, its parent company Alphabet has issued a clear directive to its employees: Be careful when using chatbots, including Bard.
Four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the tech giant advised its employees not to enter confidential information into chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s own Bard for fear of leaks. Alphabet is said to want employees not to enter sensitive information into these chatbots, as it can be read by human controllers who might be reviewing chat entries at the other end. Also, the fact that these chatbots can use previous input to train themselves poses another leak risk. Samsung’s confirmation that its internal data was leaked after its staff used ChatGPT last month shows how real this risk is.
In January, an Amazon lawyer urged company employees not to share code with ChatGPT. According to screenshots of Slack messages reviewed by Insider, the attorney specifically requested employees not to share “any Amazon confidential information (including Amazon code you’re working on)” with ChatGPT.
Apple also sent a similar injunction to its employees last month. Internal documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal showed that Apple prohibited employees from using ChatGPT and Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot, an AI coder. Also speaking to The Wall Street Journal, sources said that Apple, like every major company in tech, is interested in building its own broad language model and has acquired two AI startups in 2020 for $200 million and $50 million, respectively.
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