Samsung has banned its employees from using popular generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, after employees were discovered to have uploaded sensitive code to the platform.
The South Korea-based company notified employees at one of its largest divisions on Monday about the new policy.
According to the document, the company is concerned that data sent to these AI platforms, including Google Bard and Bing, is stored on external servers, making it difficult to retrieve and delete, and may end up being disclosed to other users.
The company conducted a survey last month about the use of AI tools internally, and said that 65% of respondents believe such services pose a security risk.
Earlier in April, Samsung engineers accidentally leaked internal source code by uploading it to ChatGPT.
“Interest in generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT is growing both internally and externally,” Samsung told employees. While this attention is focused on the usefulness and efficiency of these platforms, there are also growing concerns about the security risks presented by generative AI.
Samsung’s new rules prohibit the use of generative AI systems on the company’s computers, tablets and phones, as well as on its internal networks.
These decisions 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 not to send any company-related information or personal data that could reveal its intellectual property. She warned that violating the new policies could lead to expulsion.