‘ChatGPT Corporate Secrets’ — doesn’t seem to be a healthy combination at all, as the clouds of data breach threats continue to loom large over the brave new world of AI chatbots. 

Today, cybersecurity risks and data breach threats are rising like nothing. It has become a growing concern, globally. Businesses are feeling even more threatened as the euphoria over ChatGPT and its compatriots doesn’t look like dwindling anytime soon and billions of money is being splashed out in the AI mad rush. 

Pretty recently, we came across some shocking revelations which suggest ChatGPT data breach is going to be one of the biggest threats for businesses to tackle in the coming days. 

For the uninitiated, this is not the first time that ChatGPT has created a controversy. Just a couple of days back, a possible ChatGPT ban gave its makers, OpenAI, a scare. The matter is yet to be resolved, as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently looking into the matter. 

ChatGPT data breach

It needs to be seen how the OpenAI chatbot regulation is changed to take care of the rising fears. [Image Credit: Freepik]

But this time, the concern is quite grave for businesses, as ChatGPT might expose customer information and trade secrets. There have already been a few cases, enough to raise the alarm bell and send shockwaves across the tech world. 

Let’s delve deeper with the story and figure out the important aspects about the Chatbot corporate espionage. 

ChatGPT Corporate Secrets: Please Keep a Safe Distance 

There’s so much of AI out there, isn’t it? Most of the people who have jumped on the AI bandwagon are happy to do away with a lot of workload, thanks to the easily accessible AI chatbots. From ChatGPT and GPT-4 to Microsoft’s Bing AI chatbot and Salesforce’s Einstein GPT — at times, people are puzzled with the problem of plenty. 

Till date, most of them serve you for free. And there’s an old saying in the business world — ‘If it’s for free, then most likely you are the product’. It’s high time that we talk about the legal responsibility of AI technology, as the chatbot cybersecurity risk is something which is already taking the toll. Let’s go through the major talking points about the ChatGPT data breach —

  • Team8, which happens to be an Israel-based venture firm, has recently published a shell-shocking report which argues that over-exposure to generative AI tools like ChatGPT can cause major problems to businesses by revealing corporate secrets and user data. 
  • The report said — “Enterprise use of GenAI may result in access and processing of sensitive information, intellectual property, source code, trade secrets, and other data, through direct user input or the API, including customer or private information and confidential information.” 
  • Some engineers at the semiconductor division of Samsung ended up exposing classified information, while resorting to ChatGPT. In this regard, a top-brass official at Samsung has made it clear that “If a similar accident occurs even after emergency information protection measures are taken, access to ChatGPT may be blocked on the company network.”
  • There are strong fears of internal Amazon data being leaked to ChatGPT, which can be traced in some of the responses. “This is important because your inputs may be used as training data for a further iteration of ChatGPT. And we wouldn’t want its output to include or resemble our confidential information.”, a corporate lawyer at Amazon has warned its employees. 
  • JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Verizon are reported to have blocked employee access to the tool, amidst growing concerns over the ChatGPT legal implications. 

It needs to be seen how the OpenAI chatbot regulation is changed to take care of the rising fears. Meanwhile, Arvind Jain, CEO of Glean, has warned us about the  ‘ChatGPT Corporate Secrets’ saga — “These generative models, they’re a black box, and no human can actually explain the algorithms behind the scenes.”