ChatGPT is an incredible productivity tool. Everyone is already hooked on it because it is a force multiplier for just about any corporate job out there. Whether you want to proofread your emails, restructure data, investigate, write code, or perform almost any other task, ChatGPT can help.
However, for ChatGPT to provide effective assistance, it often requires a significant amount of context. This context is sometimes copied and pasted from internal corporate data, which can be sensitive in many cases. For example, a user might copy and paste a whole PDF file containing names, addresses, email addresses, and other sensitive information about a specific legal contract, simply to have ChatGPT summarize or answer a question about the contract's details.
Unlike searching for information on Google, ChatGPT allows users to provide more extensive information to solve the problem at hand. Furthermore, free generative AI models always offer their services for free in exchange for being able to improve their models based on the questions they are asked.
What happens if sensitive data is pasted into ChatGPT? OpenAI's models continuously improve by incorporating the information provided by users as input data. This helps the models learn how to enhance their answering abilities. Once the data is pasted and sent to OpenAI's servers, it becomes impossible to remove or request the redaction of specific information. While OpenAI's engineers are working to improve their technology in many other ways, implementing governance features that could mitigate these effects will likely take months or even years.
This situation creates a Data Loss Disaster, where employees are highly motivated and encouraged to copy and paste potentially sensitive information into systems that may store the submitted information indefinitely, without the ability to remove it or know exactly what information is stored within the complex models.
This has led companies such as Apple, Samsung, Verizon, JPMorgan, Bank of America, and others to completely ban the use of ChatGPT across their organizations. The goal is to prevent employees from accidentally leaking sensitive data while performing their everyday tasks. This approach helps minimize the risk of sensitive data being leaked through ChatGPT or similar tools.
