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Apple Blocks ChatGPT: Fear of The Data Leaks
Credit: @Freepik/MyTechPiece
Artificial intelligence is in everyone’s mouth, but some Companies would like to keep its nose out of their data. Such is the case with Apple, which recently imposed a ban on ChatGPT usage by their employees. Meanwhile, they’re still looking for AI experts to work on generative AI, for which we don’t know the purpose yet.
However, Apple isn’t the only company putting restrictions on AI uses, and here’s what you should know about the potential dangers this new technology represents for big companies like Apple.
Credit: @Freepik/MyTechPiece
Controlling The Internal Use of ChatGPT
As a new and exciting tool, many companies have started to use large language models internally to automate some tasks, and Apple is certainly one of them. However, since OpenAI is now owned by Microsoft, it’s natural that Tim Cook and his executives fear industrial spying from one of their main rivals on the busy tech market. It’s not limited to ChatGPT, and Apple has also banned the use of GitHub’s Copilot.
These chatbots can help employees accomplish their work faster, but it requires feeding it with company data, and obviously highly sensitive data, which can’t find its way to the public or fall in the hands of another company. So, Apple limited internal use of AI-powered tools.
Credit: @Freepik
Creating an Alternative
AI is too powerful to be bypassed by such a big company, so even though ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot are banned for internal use, Apple is still looking for generative AI talents. The goal for them is to come up with their own technology, which could power their internal tasks, but also be offered as a feature in their upcoming products.
As illustrated by TechCrunch, the jobs offered by Apple at the moment aren’t all about chatbots, and some applications are exclusive to visual AI generation. The job description of some jobs ask for “visual generative modeling to power applications across computation photography, image and video editing, 3D shape and motion reconstruction [and] avatar generation.”
This could mean that Apple is looking to use AI to create visuals for their OS, and create elaborate UI with 3D-generated avatars and menus. Perhaps even more, with the Apple VR project, they’re currently working on at the moment. Apple is already experimenting with what they call a Multi-task Neural Architecture on iOS 16 and MacOS Ventura, which helps circumvent their devices’ shortcomings like memory, and to reduce latency by sparing RAM and using it according to the users’ needs.
Credit: @Freepik
Other Companies Are Banning AI
Apple is the biggest example of a ban, but other companies. Big banking groups like JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, or the Bank of America have also applied restrictions on the use of AI technologies for their employees. Walmart and the telecom giant Verizon also forbid their staff from accessing ChatGPT.
It’s unlikely that these companies are working on creating their own generative AI, so it illustrates the fact that, indeed, these companies fear data leaks. The leaks could even come from the bot itself without any malevolent intention behind, since some systems like GPT 4 are now online, and can remember the data, which could be accessed from any random user asking for them.
Credit: @Freepik/MyTechPiece
Should It Be a Wake-Up Call For Regulators?
Amidst all of these private corporations restricting and creating guidelines, governments and regulatory bodies offer a deafening silence. It’s no surprise, given how those who are supposed to protect us have been struggling to create laws fast enough since the creation of the internet.
Still, AI is such a big deal that it may call for a rethinking of how our politics create the laws, and how they should work hand-in-hand with private companies to catch up to a technology that is already impacting everyone. What do you think about AI being banned by private companies like Apple? Is it a good thing? Let us know your opinion in the comments, and what solution you foresee for AI usage.
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