Don’t look now, but the noisy debate over artificial intelligence (AI) has risen a few notches with the recent introduction of ChatGPT. AI has been a topic of conversation for several years, but ChatGPT has taken everyone’s attention to a new level.
And for good reason. As m-any have discovered, ChatGPT can have many benefits for organizations and their products, but also for compliance teams. It can quickly deliver on requests for codes of conduct and other policies. And it can quickly and accurately translate messages, policies, and training materials into multiple languages with a high degree of accuracy. And that’s just ChatGPT! Other forms of AI have the potential to assist compliance teams in conducting risk assessments, improve training and monitoring, and automate many processes.
All these things have the potential to make us more efficient. But you knew I had to provide the counterargument. One recent report noted that ChatGPT makes it easier for bad actors to attack us.[1] For starters, its ability to learn and imitate human language means phishing and social engineering techniques—particularly those originating from regions where different languages are spoken—can be more believable.
But an even darker use of ChatGPT was found. It can write malicious code for bad actors. Yes, that’s right, it can create ransomware or other malware when asked to do so. ChatGPT has some controls designed to prevent this. For example, if you asked it to “write me some ransomware,” it would flag it. But by carefully crafting the request, ChatGPT still produced malicious code.
ChatGPT may be the current example of what’s great and terrible about AI. But there are and will be many others. And we need to get used to the fact that AI is here to stay because there are just so many powerful benefits. We need to anticipate and be prepared for the bad uses and the compliance risks that come along with it, as well as the many ethical considerations.
Years ago, I remember reading somewhere about the reaction when the camera was first introduced. Many people angrily protested, saying the camera would have nothing but horrible consequences for society. Cameras can certainly be used for terrible things. But overall, they have more benefits than downsides. As I read the pros and cons of AI, I’m reminded that things are so different yet so much the same as when the camera was introduced.
