Samsung, the South Korean tech giant, has become the latest company to ban the use of generative artificial intelligence programs like ChatGPT after some of its engineers used the chatbot to alter proprietary code. In a memo released on Monday, the company warned its staff of the potential risks associated with using AI programs, such as ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Microsoft Bing AI, which can store data without giving users the option to delete it before the AI chatbot spits out its responses.
Those found using ChatGPT will face serious disciplinary action, including termination of employment, the company explained. To make up for the removal of ChatGPT, Samsung is creating in-house tools to replace tasks such as translation, summarizing notes, and fixing code issues. An “incognito” mode, recently added by OpenAI, didn’t appear to be enough to satisfy the tech giant.
Major corporations such as Walmart, Verizon, and JP Morgan have placed restrictions on or outright banned ChatGPT usage for fear of data collection and potential security breaches. However, this hasn’t stopped the chatbot from gaining traction among software engineers worldwide. As ChatGPT enables users to create websites and write simple programs without much effort, Google recently gave its competitive AI product, Bard, an upgrade which allows it to code in more than 20 languages.
