- Apple prohibits employees from using OpenAI’s chatbot and other generative AI tools
- The company fears that sensitive information will be revealed to its competitors by these virtual assistants
- She is also developing her own generative AI technology, which she keeps secret
Apple hunts for indiscretions. Apple has decided to ban the use of ChatGPT and other generative AI services by some of its employees, according to an internal document revealed by the wall street journal. She worries that these smart chatbots will compromise the privacy of her critical data.
Apple and its culture of secrecy
Renowned for its culture of secrecy and its protection of its data, Apple is wary of new artificial intelligence tools. ChatGPT indeed poses a confidentiality problem for the company: by default, the history of conversations with the chatbot is stored on the OpenAI server, before potentially being analyzed and used to improve the AI. Thus, confidential data submitted by Apple employees could be exposed.
In an attempt to reassure users, OpenAI announced on April 25, 2023 that it had introduced the ability to disable chat history in ChatGPT. But that was not enough to convince Apple, which decided to purely and simply ban the use of the chatbot and its derivatives in its company.
Apple isn’t the only big company to take this step. Other tech giants like Samsung, Amazon or JPMorgan Chase have also restricted or banned the use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools internally. They too fear that their secrets will be leaked or that their employees will become too dependent on these virtual assistants.
Apple, the AI bet
However, Apple does not reject artificial intelligence. On the contrary, according to information from the wall street journal, she would even work on her own AI technology generative similar to ChatGPT. It would rely for this on the skills of John Giannandrea, senior vice president of machine learning and AI at Apple, as well as on the innovations of the many start-ups specializing in AI that it has acquired. these last years.
Apple has not yet unveiled the details of its solution, but we can imagine that it will be integrated into its flagship products and services, such as Siri, the Apple Watch or the iPhone. It could also be used to assist internal developers in the creation of new applications or functionalities.
In the meantime, Apple asks its employees to scrupulously respect its ban on using ChatGPT and other generative AIs subject to disciplinary sanctions which may go as far as dismissal. At Apple, we don’t joke about secrecy.