ChatGPT is a sophisticated AI language model gaining traction due to its ability to generate human-like responses to natural language input.
ChatGPT’s context comprehension and relevant response generation have made it a popular choice for businesses looking to improve customer experience and operations.
Major technology companies are investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI). Microsoft, for example, has announced a $10 billion investment in OpenAI and plans to integrate ChatGPT into its Azure OpenAI suite. This will enable businesses to incorporate AI assets into their technology infrastructure, such as DALL-E, a program that generates images, and Codex, which converts natural language into code.
While ChatGPT has several advantages for financial institutions, such as improved customer service and task automation, it also has some risks that must be addressed. Major banks and other institutions in the United States have prohibited their employees from using ChatGPT. Concerns have been raised about sensitive information being entered into the chatbot.
Risks associated with ChatGPT
Let’s look at the potential risks that are currently being discussed regarding the use of ChatGPT:
1. Data exposure
Accidentally exposing sensitive data is one potential risk of using ChatGPT in the workplace. Employees who use ChatGPT to generate data insights and analyze large amounts of financial data, for example, may unintentionally reveal confidential information while conversing with the AI model, resulting in privacy or security breaches. Another known data exposure case is when employees inadvertently include confidential information in training data, potentially exposing private code. This could happen if an employee includes code snippets containing sensitive or proprietary data, such as API keys or login credentials.
2. Misinformation
ChatGPT may generate inaccurate or biased responses based on its programming and training data. Financial professionals should use it cautiously to avoid spreading misinformation or relying on untrustworthy advice. ChatGPT’s current version was trained only on data sets available until 2021. Furthermore, the tool uses online data that is not always accurate.
3. Technology dependency
While ChatGPT provides valuable insights for financial decision-making, relying solely on technology risks ignoring human judgment and intuition. Financial professionals may misinterpret or become overly reliant on ChatGPT recommendations. As a result, striking a balance between technology and human expertise is critical.
4. Privacy concerns
ChatGPT collects a lot of personal information that users unwittingly provide. Most AI models require a large amount of data to be trained and improved; similarly, organizations may need to process a large amount of data to train ChatGPT. If the information is exposed or used maliciously, it can pose a significant risk to individuals and organizations.
5. Social engineering
Cybercriminals can use ChatGPT to impersonate individuals or organizations and create highly personalized and convincing phishing emails, making it difficult for victims to detect the attack. This can result in successful phishing attacks and an increase in the number of people falling for the scam.
6. Creating malicious scripts and malware
Cybercriminals can use ChatGPT to train them on massive amounts of code to create undetectable malware strains that bypass traditional security defenses. This malware can dynamically change its code and behavior by employing polymorphic techniques such as encryption and obfuscation, making it difficult to analyze and identify.
Conclusion
First, financial institutions should develop clear policies and guidelines for using ChatGPT in the workplace to protect confidential information and reduce data exposure risks. Second, anonymized data should be used to train an AI model to protect the privacy of individuals and organizations whose data is being used. Employees’ use of ChatGPT information during their work should be subject to strict controls. Employees accessing ChatGPT should receive training on the technology’s potential risks, such as data exposure, privacy violations, and ethical concerns. Limiting access to ChatGPT reduces the risk of data exposure and misuse of the technology.
