iHeartMedia, a leading audio media company, has decided to seriously limit the use of ChatGPT, an AI-based conversational tool, among its employees. The company is joining other industry giants like Apple, Spotify, and Verizon, to discourage using technology that can potentially lead to a breach of confidential information.
iHeartMedia’s CEO Bob Pittman and CFO Rich Bressler shared an internal memo with employees outlining the expectations surrounding OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The memo stated that the tool’s use should be significantly restricted unless necessary and approved in advance to prevent accidental leaks of proprietary information.
The company explicitly restricted ChatGPT usage on company devices and prohibited uploading any confidential documents to such platforms. ChatGPT stores users’ conversations and uses them to train AI algorithms, and the model is trained using public data scraped from the internet.
While the company has expressed the usefulness and transformative potential of conversational AI, it still wants to protect itself, its partners, and its users from potential leaks of confidential information. Therefore, iHeartMedia has set guidelines for using third-party AI tools that require employees to consult with the legal and IT teams for advice before using the tool. Every project also requires an assessment of its business impact and value, evaluation, and documented approval from Legal and IT.
iHeartMedia is just one of many companies that wish to protect their intellectual property from training LLMs like ChatGPT. Many companies are concerned that the conversations stored on these platforms could be used to leak confidential information to competitors.
This warning follows an incident when Samsung employees inadvertently leaked confidential information through ChatGPT. Therefore, iHeartMedia’s move is seen as a proactive defense strategy in an increasingly connected business world.
In conclusion, iHeartMedia’s proactive approach to technology use is commendable in a world where cybersecurity has become increasingly important. Employees who use such tools should be aware of the potential consequences of their actions and take necessary precautions to protect themselves and their companies.
