Benefits and risks of integrating AI into your business operations

"AI" (artificial intelligence) has been the hottest tech buzzword for the past year and a half, and it is likely to stay a big, evolving topic for some time. Integrating AI into your business operations should be done with explicit consideration of both the benefits and the risks.

First, it helps to distinguish two terms.

• Artificial intelligence (AI) is a decades-old branch of computer science focused on replicating human decision-making and analysis. AI features are well established within tools we use every day. For example, advanced spam filtering does not just check a pre-set list of "bad" words or patterns; it adjusts what it looks for in real time as incoming email patterns emerge.
• Generative AI (genAI) burst into view in 2022 with public betas of tools like ChatGPT and Dall-E. This subcategory of AI is trained on vast catalogs of data to output new, original text, images, audio, or video.

Most of the debate you have heard about AI over the past year and a half is really about genAI: web-based tools and features of your favorite apps that can answer questions in full paragraphs, summarize long passages into bullet points, and create new images from text or image prompts. That debate covers the ethics of using genAI for assignments at school or work, the possibility that human jobs might be replaced by bots, and even the likelihood of genAI taking over the world.

Guidelines for responsible use

GenAI tools hold many promises for organizations of all sizes. Setting aside the fate of humankind for the moment, let's explore the risks and benefits of using the genAI tools that exist today within your organization.

There are two broad security issues to consider: what you input, and what the genAI tool outputs.

Input

Your input may be a question to prompt an answer from ChatGPT, a set of documents to turn into meeting notes, or a description of a scene for an illustration to use with a social media post. You should assume that your input is being saved and used by the genAI tool you have selected. So, first and foremost: do not use any sensitive, proprietary, or personally identifiable information as the input data for a genAI assignment.

Each tool has its own terms and conditions. If you want a better understanding of how your input data might be used, it is a good idea to read these and the other privacy statements your genAI vendor has prepared. But keep in mind that this is a quickly expanding industry with billions of dollars at stake, and genAI's success depends on access to as much data as it can get. There is no guarantee that today's terms and conditions will be the same tomorrow, and once you have shared any data, there may be no way to unshare it.

Output

If you prompt a genAI program to create content and then use that output for a memo, presentation, or blog post, you are responsible for its accuracy. Double-check the genAI's facts, and do not assume the bot knows more than you do. Along the same lines, if you use content from ChatGPT or a similar source, disclose and cite it accordingly, confirm that the generated content has been reviewed by the author for accuracy, and acknowledge responsibility for the statements made.

GenAI tools can be especially helpful for generating or editing code from plain-English prompts, creating opportunities for non-programmers to build apps, websites, or scripts. But running that code on your own computer or in a networked environment without first confirming its results risks data loss or a compromised system. Understand and test that code in a controlled development environment to protect yourself and your organization.

Deeper dive

The Civic AI Observatory has a great article that breaks this matter down in extensive detail, and we highly recommend giving it a read.

We especially appreciated the sample policies they shared, which may be instructive as you form your own organization's posture:

• The official guidance for how civil servants should use this technology from the UK government
• A sample policy that considers the ethical guideline for use in campaigning, from a smaller organization
• A One-Pager for Staff from London's Office of Technology and Innovation
• A sample policy from the Society for Innovation, Technology and Modernisation

If you are a Macktez client and you still have questions, reach out to your Technical Account Manager to start a conversation.