How important is implementing AI Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for an organisation!
We all know it is obvious to say that implementing AI Acceptable Use Policy within our organisation is more than just critical and the present relevance is strikingly factual!
We have a four point reasoning to this, with the primary being
- Stopping Shadow AI and protecting against imminent data leaks – Employees often have a tendency to input sensitive corporate data which could be source code, financial projections, or customer PII, for example, into free consumer AI tools in order to save time in finishing their tasks.
Free Versions of AI tools exist with a main purpose to train future models from prompt inputs. This means corporate proprietary information may be exposed to competitors through someone else’s prompt.
A good AUP clearly draws the line between reviewed, accepted and agreed enterprise grade AI tools against banned tools.
- Regulatory Compliance and copyright infringement– Globally, Regulators impose heavy penalties on unauthorised sharing of data with third party processors.
AI Generated contents can infringe existing copyrights and consequently not be eligible for copyright protection.
A balanced AUP ensures legal and regulatory compliance.
- Output Quality and Accuracy – AI hallucinations driven by next word guessing, forced answers or data gaps/learning gaps in certain AI tools seriously affects the quality of outputs with fake statistics, non-existent references or citations undermining expected quality of outputs required for organisations.
An AUP enforces ‘Human-in-the-loop’ making employees accountable for verifying the authenticity of AI generated outputs before they are published or placed on record.
- Insurance and Audit requirements – Cybersecurity insurance providers and external auditors actively look for AI governance policies. Failing to have an established AI AUP can lead to rejection for insurance cover, higher insurance premiums or failed compliance audits.
A well-designed AI acceptable use policy will have a formal set of rules that defines how employees and contractors can safely and legally use artificial intelligence tools within an organization.