Risk vs Reward
The use of AI tools undoubtedly yield incredibly useful results. In today’s world, the use of ChatGPT has nearly replaced Google’s use case. It is typically more efficient to ask an AI chat bot for answers to questions that you would traditionally Google because the answer will be given directly to you in a personalized manner for your specific question. This saves a lot of time because it is instant and you no longer have to piece an answer together on your own from multiple sources and websites. While ChatGPT is just the most popular tool of this nature, there are many other tools these days that utilize AI. In general, when using any of these tools, there are a few safety tips to use in order to ensure that you aren’t feeding these tools private or sensitive data to train on.
What is Training?
Essentially, AI tools are not as magical as they seem. For the most part these tools are learning and memorizing the open internet and any additional data that is fed into it. This additional data ranges from user interactions with the tools, to explicit data provided to the tool by it’s maintainers. For instance, if Nissan were to create an AI chat bot for their website, they would feed the AI data to train on such as Car model prices, car model features, and inventory data. The AI would then train on this data and become an expert who could answer any question you may have regarding Nissan cars. If this sounds similar to training on the job as a human, that’s because it is the exact same idea. Artificial Intelligence is improperly titled purposefully for marketing as it gives a futuristic vibe to the products. A more fitting term for the technology is machine learning, though it is admittedly a less attractive term.
What Can Stranger’s Learn About You?
The best way to understand what level of information should or shouldn’t be provided to AI is to determine what information you wouldn’t want a stranger to know about you. When walking past a random stranger in the city, would you want to expose your full name, phone number, employer, names of family members, company secrets, etc.? If the answer is no, you should always interact with AI in the same way. This means that adding AI extensions or tools that are always running in the background should be utilized with caution because they may be taking in information that you do not intend to share. Additionally, if you are using AI chat bots it is wise to omit specifics when asking a question.
For instance, if you are in need of help with creating an excel pivot table for work, NEVER upload the exact data that you need assistance with. Instead, you can ask a more generic question such as how to create a pivot table as this does not require you to provide any data. In the case that your question is a bit more complex and you need to provide data to get a viable solution, you should always create fake data that does not resemble the actual data. Chat GPT or other tools should not be utilized to complete the work for you, instead it should be used to generate an example that can aid you in completing the work yourself.
What’s On The Internet Stays on The Internet
If there’s anything we all should know by now, it’s that nothing disappears once it is on the Internet. This remains true as we move into the AI age of the internet. We do not own our data and anything we share is subject to be used and reused with no way to delete or permanently remove. In order to protect yourself, your family, and your employer, it is best to refrain from sharing detailed and personal information with any AI tool.