Samsung Electronics Announces Internal Work Support Solution, Banning ChatGPT Use

DX Division Temporarily Restricts Use of Generative AI
Information Leakage Cases Reported in DS Division
Plans to Introduce Solutions to Assist Employee Tasks

Samsung Electronics has decided to temporarily restrict the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT and Google Bard within the company due to security concerns, including the risk of confidential information leaks. Instead, the company plans to develop and introduce in-house work support software, such as translation tools, to complement generative AI.

According to business circles on the 3rd, Samsung Electronics' Device Experience (DX) division posted an internal notice on the 28th of last month informing employees that the use of generative AI on company PCs would be temporarily restricted starting this month. This decision was made due to concerns that important company information could be leaked externally.

The company emphasized that when generative AI is used internally, the inputted content is stored externally and cannot be retrieved or deleted. It also explained that generative AI cannot be used until these issues are resolved.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Previously, the DX division conducted an internal survey in which 65% of respondents answered that there are security risks when using generative AI. In March, there was an actual case of information leakage in the Device Solutions (DS) division, where an engineer uploaded source code to ChatGPT. There was also an incident involving uploading the content of internal emails.

Unlike the DX division, Samsung Electronics' DS division has not restricted the use of generative AI. However, to prevent misuse within the company, it is raising awareness of related issues and limiting the number of characters or data size when using ChatGPT.

Instead, Samsung Electronics plans to prepare a program to replace generative AI. Since employees have been using generative AI for information acquisition and improving work efficiency, the company will independently introduce software to support these purposes. The solution will assist with tasks such as translation and document summarization, and the company explains that it is not generative AI.

Meanwhile, as the use of generative AI has surged, cases of overseas companies and institutions banning internal use, like Samsung Electronics, are increasing. Overseas financial firms such as Bank of America, JP Morgan, and Goldman Sachs have banned the internal use of ChatGPT. Some public schools, academic societies, and research institutes in the United States are also blocking ChatGPT use for the same reasons.

Generative AI is an AI technology that creates new content by utilizing existing content such as text, audio, and images. ChatGPT is a text-based generative AI that answers users' questions. It was introduced by the US-based OpenAI in December last year and has gained global popularity, surpassing 100 million monthly users.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.