Photo: Unsplash | ilgmyzin
ChatGPT remembers everything. That’s a lesson Samsung employees learned last week after accidentally leaking sensitive information to the artificial intelligence-powered chat technology.
ChatGPT can help with writing emails, scheduling meetings, and analyzing data. Engineers and programmers across many industries have also found it helpful in refining code or double-checking their work.
The information users provide, however, is retained to train the AI behind the bot, posing a security threat. If someone asks ChatGPT to write a similar piece of code to a previous user, the AI could take some code elements from the first developer’s previously created code and share it with another user.
OpenAI, ChatGPT’s developer, explicitly warns users against sharing sensitive information because it is “not able to delete specific prompts” unless users choose to opt out.
Samsung supposedly discovered three instances in which confidential data was revealed, according to Economist Korea. Workers revealed restricted equipment data to the chatbot on two separate occasions and one sent the chatbot an excerpt from a corporate meeting.
Amazon.com and Walmart have issued internal warnings on AI use.
Amazon’s warning in January came after it found text generated by ChatGPT that "closely" resembled internal company data, according to internal Slack messages leaked to Business Insider.
Walmart, in a late February memo, warned staffers to “not input any information about Walmart's business — including business process, policy, or strategy — into these tools," according to a separate Business Insider article.
Walmart stated that while generative AI tools "can enhance efficiency and innovation," they must be used "appropriately."
CitiGroup, Goldman Sachs, Verizon and Wells Fargo are among a growing number of companies restricting employees' use of ChatGPT amid mounting concerns about the ability to regulate and shape the use of such tools.
A recent analysis by cybersecurity company Cyberhaven found 3.1 percent of companies who used the AI had at one point submitted confidential company data into the system. Cyberhaven wrote in the report, “There are many legitimate uses of ChatGPT in the workplace, and companies that navigate ways to leverage it to improve productivity without risking their sensitive data are poised to benefit.”