How suitable is ChatGPT for businesses?

(Image credit: Future)

ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, as a tangible and relatable use of advanced AI. With people inside and outside the tech scene getting equally excited about its capabilities, many businesses have asked themselves if they could – or should – adopt the chatbot into their stack.

But while businesses are eager to take advantage of OpenAI’s powerful models, some have advised careful consideration of the information that one gives to ChatGPT and whether or not it makes sense for every firm.

In this episode Jane speaks to Rory, ITPro’s subject matter expert on AI, to discuss all things ChatGPT and unpack the current landscape of generative AI offerings.

Highlights

“If you're looking to draft, say, an email or draft, a non-sensitive document, that you can then go in and maybe personalize – add some of your own company's touches to it, or what have you – then it's fairly capable at that. Something it's very good at is generating code through the Codex model that OpenAI has made.”

“There's been a tendency to anthropomorphize ChatGPT, it's very easy to talk about chatbots and talk about ‘AI assistants’ and think of them as a sort of a helpful person behind your screen that's helping you…why can't this person count very well, or solve a complex mathematical equation? And it's because as you're saying, that's not the function of ChatGPT, it's not an all-knowing AI assistant. It's a model that is giving you statistical outputs.”

“It's worth mentioning that these kinds of concerns over IP and over proprietary code being shared with large language models are already happening in the wild. A short while ago, Samsung issued a warning internally because it found that on at least three separate occasions, its employees had put sensitive data or sensitive source code directly into ChatGPT in order to get outputs, which is something of a nightmare for a company that is protective of its assets”

Read the full transcript here.

Footnotes

Rory Bathgate is Features and Multimedia Editor at ITPro, overseeing all in-depth content and case studies. He can also be found co-hosting the ITPro Podcast with Jane McCallion, swapping a keyboard for a microphone to discuss the latest learnings with thought leaders from across the tech sector.

In his free time, Rory enjoys photography, video editing, and good science fiction. After graduating from the University of Kent with a BA in English and American Literature, Rory undertook an MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies at King’s College London. He joined ITPro in 2022 as a graduate, following four years in student journalism. You can contact Rory at rory.bathgate@futurenet.com or on LinkedIn.