BlackBerry research suggests majority of organizations considering ban on generative AI

As artificial intelligence (AI) advances rapidly, it seems companies are taking steps to slow it down.

New research from BlackBerry suggests 75 per cent of organizations worldwide are implementing or considering bans on ChatGPT and other generative AI applications on work devices.

"That is not as surprising for me as the next stat I'm going to quote, which is 61 per cent of them are thinking of banning them permanently," said Arvind Raman, BlackBerry's chief information security officer.

The research involved 2,000 IT decision-makers from eight countries.

Risks to data security, privacy and corporate reputation are driving up the decisions to take action, with 83 per cent voicing concerns that unsecured apps pose a cybersecurity threat to their corporate IT environment.

"When you allow ChatGPT, are people being responsible with what they are putting out there and making sure no trade secrets go there, and sensitive information goes up there?" Raman said.

Maura R. Grossman is a research professor at the University of Waterloo's School of Computer Science. She says generative AI apps are only as smart as the information it's previously been fed.

"For creative tasks it's wonderful. For things that require precise facts, maybe not so much," said Grossman. "And then you have to ask yourself 'does it take me longer to check everything from scratch than just do it myself?'"

But what might these bans in the workplace look like?

Many companies are still trying to figure that out, but some old practices may come in handy.

"I could either block those sites, or I could set up a system that would give a ping to IT when somebody went to one of those sites," says Grossman.

At BlackBerry, generative AI is unauthorized for business purposes with the company citing the same concerns as others.

There are subgroups at the organization that can access and test it, so they can continue measuring the risks and rewards for research.

Despite the inclination toward blocking widespread use of the technology, most IT decision-makers that participated in the study recognize the opportunity for generative AI applications to have a positive impact in the workplace.

You can read more on the research from BlackBerry here.