Apple restricts the use of ChatGPT and other AI platforms for its employees

APPS – Apple has decided to limit its employees’ access to artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT, following the lead of other companies such as Amazon and Samsung. According to a tweet by Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, Apple has placed ChatGPT on an internal access restriction list for several months. Furthermore, The Wall Street Journal also reported that the tech giant has warned against the use of programming assistants by its employees, such as Github’s Copilot, and this list could expand to include Google Colab.

Following in the footsteps of Amazon and Samsung, the Cupertino-based company is limiting access to certain artificial intelligence platforms to protect confidential data. This image was generated by an artificial intelligence for illustration purposes. © Nikolas1007 / Midjourney

Tech

Published on May 24, 2023 – 09:49 GMT +02:00

Reasons for restrictions

There are several factors explaining why Apple is blocking the use of these tools. One of them concerns data collection during interactions with ChatGPT. OpenAI’s platform can retain interactions to improve its responses, and anything shared with it is also accessible to moderators, who check for potential violations of the terms of use. As a result, these professionals could indirectly access Apple’s confidential data.

Despite the presence of a feature that allows users to disable the chatbot’s conversation history, implemented in April after some European Union countries listed Big Techs subject to internet regulation, there is no guarantee regarding the confidentiality of the information. The artificial intelligence service retains data for 30 days to check for potential violations before completely erasing it, even if the conversation history feature is disabled.

Data extraction

Another reason why Apple is restricting access to ChatGPT is the potential for learning data extraction through the chat interface itself, as mentioned in a study by Cornell University. However, there is no evidence that the service is vulnerable to this practice.

Ironically, Apple’s restrictions come as the ChatGPT app for iOS is launched.

# Tags: Apps