ChatGPT, will be "blocked" by 75% of the world's enterprises? !

Organize | Zheng Liyuan Listing | CSDN

After an initial 9.7% drop in traffic in June, ChatGPT saw its second consecutive month of decline: Its traffic fell another 9.6% in July, according to the latest survey from website data analytics tool SimilarWeb.

The reason behind the decline in ChatGPT visits, SimilarWeb speculates that it may be related to student holidays. But in addition, it seems that more and more companies have also begun to decide to disable ChatGPT, not only including Samsung and Apple, but companies such as JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Verizon and Amazon have also restricted employees from using ChatGPT.

And this week, BlackBerry released a new study:

▶ 75% of organizations worldwide are currently considering banning the use of ChatGPT and other generative AI applications in the workplace.

▶ 61% of companies that are deploying or considering a ChatGPT ban say that disabling ChatGPT will be long-term or permanent.

**Why do companies want to disable ChatGPT? **

According to BlackBerry's official blog, the research data comes from its survey of nearly 2,000 IT decision makers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan and Australia.

The survey results show that the ban on ChatGPT and generative AI is mostly driven by the technical leadership within the company, and the CEO of nearly half of the companies also plays a leading role:

▶ CIO (Chief Information Officer) / CTO (Chief Technology Officer) / CSO (Chief Security Officer) / IT——72%

▶ CEO (Chief Executive Officer) - 48%

▶ Legal compliance managers - 40%

▶ CFO (Chief Financial Officer) / Finance - 36%

▶ HR (Human Resources) - 32%

There are many reasons to oppose the use of ChatGPT in the workplace. About 67% of the respondents think that the data security and privacy issues that ChatGPT may bring are the biggest risks, followed by the reputation risk of the company, which is also the reason why 57% of people consider disabling ChatGPT one.

In fact, as early as March this year, BlackBerry consulted several security experts within the company on the topic of "Is it safe for organizations to use ChatGPT?" to reveal what every organization should pay attention to when using ChatGPT or similar tools, Generally speaking, it can be divided into three aspects:

(1) Data Leakage and Security Issues of AI Chatbots

If sensitive third-party or internal company information is entered into ChatGPT, this information will become part of its training data and may be shared with others who ask relevant questions, leading to data leakage. Any unauthorized disclosure of confidential information to ChatGPT may violate corporate security policies.

(2) Legal considerations for using AI chatbots

Once the security of ChatGPT is compromised, content that should have been protected by contract or law could be compromised and blamed on the organization, affecting the company's reputation. In addition, if ChatGPT is used to generate code, it is difficult to define who owns the copyright; using ChatGPT to generate copyrighted written materials, such as authorized open source materials, will also cause copyright issues, and may even cause the company to violate the OSS (Open Source Software )license.

Also important: the terms of service state that ChatGPT may not be used to develop any other AI. If your company is also in the field of AI, using ChatGPT may jeopardize the future development of AI in the company.

(3) Privacy Considerations for AI Chatbots

ChatGPT has been warning users not to provide or enter sensitive personal information such as names or email addresses. Providing any personal data to AI-generating systems could be repurposed for other purposes, leading to misuse and reputational damage, and potentially violating an organization's privacy commitments to employees, customers, and partners.

Despite the risks associated with using ChatGPT, and many IT decision makers preferring to discourage widespread use of this emerging technology, they also acknowledge the positive impact of generative AI applications in the workplace: 55% believe that AI can help improve productivity, with 52% saying it helps innovation and 51% saying it enhances creativity. Additionally, when it comes to using generative AI tools for cybersecurity defense, a majority of respondents (81%) also strongly approve.

A "cautious and aggressive" approach is recommended

Not only that, BlackBerry research data also shows that although 80% of IT decision makers believe that enterprises have the right to control the applications that employees use for business purposes, but at the same time 74% of them believe that this ban is a "disadvantage" to enterprises and office equipment. excessive control".

To this end, a significant number of CIOs and CISOs surveyed (62%) indicated that their companies have turned to unified endpoint management (UEM) platforms, which provide granular control over which applications can connect to the enterprise environment. In this way, employees' private data or applications are separated and isolated, while ensuring that corporate security is maintained.

Based on the above advantages and disadvantages of using generative AI such as ChatGPT, Shishir Singh, chief technology officer of cybersecurity at BlackBerry, called for companies and organizations to adopt a "cautious and proactive" attitude: "Banning the use of generative AI applications in the workplace may It means that a lot of potential business interests are stifled."

Shishir Singh emphasized that as the future AI platform matures and relevant regulations come into effect, companies may adopt flexibility policies. The key is to have the right tools to monitor the generative AI applications used in the workplace. Visibility monitoring and management.

**Netizen: Because you don’t understand AI, you want to give up AI? **

Regarding the investigation report provided by BlackBerry, the first reaction of many netizens was "Is BlackBerry still alive?" Then heated discussions began:

▶ "I can understand the prohibition of disclosing sensitive data on these chatbots, but a blanket ban seems too much?"

▶ "If I were in charge of the company, I would also ban these public-facing models. After all, the risk of data theft is too great, especially when using plug-ins and other things."

▶"My company also quickly issued a ban, but it's not a comprehensive ban. I just can't enter any identifying information or sensitive information in the prompt. For general content, the company has no restrictions."

In addition to discussing the ban on the use of ChatGPT, some netizens believe that the root cause of the company's decision is not because AI technology is dangerous, but "humans do not understand how to use tools correctly":

▶ “This makes sense, but it’s not fundamentally that technology is dangerous, it’s that humans don’t understand how to use tools properly. Like most times in our history, we fear what we don’t understand — basically This means that until we figure out how to do it, we will only try to throw it away, as in this case with generative AI.”

So, does your company allow employees to use generative AI tools? What do you think about businesses banning generative AI tools?

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