The Suwon, South Korea-based company notified staff at one
of its biggest divisions on Monday about the new policy via a memo reviewed by
Bloomberg News.
The company is concerned that data transmitted to such
artificial intelligence platforms including Google Bard and Bing is stored on
external servers, making it difficult to retrieve and delete, and could end up
being disclosed to other users, according to the document.
The company conducted a survey last month about the use of
AI tools internally and said that 65 percent of respondents believe that such
services pose a security risk. Earlier in April, Samsung engineers accidentally
leaked internal source code by uploading it to ChatGPT, according to the memo.
It's unclear what the information encompassed, and a Samsung representative
declined to comment.
“Interest in generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT has
been growing internally and externally,” Samsung told staff. “While this
interest focuses on the usefulness and efficiency of these platforms, there are
also growing concerns about security risks presented by generative AI.”
Samsung is just the latest big company to express concern
about the technology. In February, only a couple of months after OpenAI's
chatbot service stirred up a storm of interest in the technology, some Wall
Street banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup either
banned or restricted its use. Italy also barred the use of ChatGPT over privacy
fears, though it reversed its stance in recent days.
The new Samsung rules ban the use of generative AI systems
on company-owned computers, tablets, and phones, as well as on its internal
networks. They do not affect the company's devices sold to consumers, such as
Android smartphones and Windows laptops.
Samsung asked employees who use ChatGPT and other tools on
personal devices to not submit any company-related information or personal data
that could reveal its intellectual property. It warned that breaking the new
policies could result in being fired.
“We ask that you diligently adhere to our security
guidelines and failure to do so may result in a breach or compromise of company
information resulting in disciplinary action up to and including termination of
employment,” Samsung said in the memo.
In the meantime, the company is creating its own internal AI
tools for translation and summarizing documents as well as for software
development. It's also working on ways to block the upload of sensitive company
information to external services. Last month, ChatGPT added an “incognito” mode
that allows users to block their chats from being used for AI model training.
“HQ is reviewing security measures to create a secure
environment for safely using generative AI to enhance employees' productivity
and efficiency,” the memo said. “However, until these measures are prepared, we
are temporarily restricting the use of generative AI.” © Bloomberg LP