Apple bans its employees from using ChatGPT for work

Earlier today, OpenAI released the official ChatGPT app for iPhone. The tool has become well known for answering users’ requests and solving from the simplest to the most complex issues thanks to artificial intelligence. Apple, however, doesn’t want its employees using such tools. In an internal memo, the company said that generative AIs can’t be used for work.

Apple employees can no longer use ChatGPT

The Wall Street Journal was able to see this document, in which the company is concerned about these AI platforms collecting confidential data from employees. In addition to ChatGPT, Apple has also banned its employees from using GitHub’s Copilot, which is owned by Microsoft. With Copilot, developers can automate the writing of code.

ChatGPT, which is also supported by Microsoft, sends data to developers so that they can continue to improve the artificial intelligence models used by the platform. As noted by WSJ, a bug in March allowed users to see the chat history of other ChatGPT users. After this incident, ChatGPT added the option to let users turn off their chat history and not contribute to training the AI model.

But of course, if Apple’s engineers use these platforms, there’s no way to ensure that the codes they type won’t end up leaking to someone else – or even used by the developers behind these apps. The same applies for other confidential information, since employees can use ChatGPT to compose emails, for example.

But Apple is not the only company to ban ChatGPT and other generative AIs for its employees. JPMorgan Chase and Verizon have also restricted the use of such platforms. Amazon has asked its engineers to use its own internal AI tool rather than third-party ones, according to WSJ sources. The report mentions that Apple has also been working on its own AI model.

Siri may get AI-based features soon

Apple’s new AI project is being led by John Giannandrea, who was hired from Google in 2018. In a recent call with investors, Apple CEO Tim Cook praised the potential of generative AI. However, Cook also said that there are “issues that need to be sorted” because of the way the technology currently works.

9to5Mac recently reported that Apple has been secretly testing a new technology codenamed “Bobcat” that brings generative natural language to Siri. However, it’s unclear when the company plans to make this available to the public.

For now, even Apple employees complain about how poorly Siri works because of its legacy database based on old technology.