A new guest has stormed into the offices of consulting firms. It’s called artificial intelligence. And its ability to sneak into reports, advice, or the work of its employees is already a concern at the top of professional services firms. This emerges from an internal email from Deloitte Spain dated April 11, to which this newspaper had access. “Confidential information belonging to the customer, third parties or Deloitte should not be contributed to these AI platforms,” reads a sentence of the four-page text sent to the company’s employees. In it, the company, which has more than 8,000 professionals in Spain, warns that any use of ChatGPT or similar tools must first have their consent.
The speed at which this disruptive technology is being adopted by large corporations. The Australian division of another Big Four (as the big four global consulting firms are known), PwC, sent out a message back last February urging its employees not to use any material created by these applications with clients . In the case of Deloitte Spain, there are many fears. Unauthorized disclosure of information: “If the data entered is stored on a server or database, there is a potential risk of it being disclosed to a third party without authorization, whether due to security breaches, cyberattacks or data breaches,” the email says. On the fact that there is bias: “If the training data used contains bias or bias, there is a risk that the responses generated by the model will be discriminatory or unfair and even compromise the privacy of people interacting with the model and the reputation of the.” companies using it. Or that they are mistaken for good answers with a lot of mistakes: “There are limitations in the ability of these tools to understand the context and meaning behind the words. This enforces the implementation of adequate validation and human monitoring mechanisms.”
Distrust about the usefulness of the information flies throughout the document. “These tools are trained on historical data, which means they may not be good at spotting new trends or problems. […] There can be a lack of rigor and precision at work.”
Consultants are in high demand from governments, multinationals and other entities that need advice on all types of programs and spending plans. With such delicate schedules that rely heavily on technical knowledge, which in many cases is now available in ChatGPT, there are staff who might be tempted to resort to artificial intelligence to resolve their doubts the fastest. Deloitte does not believe this to be ideal, for both the above and other reasons. “If the responses generated contain sensitive proprietary (e.g. copyrighted) or confidential information, there is a risk that that information will be used inappropriately,” he points out.
Customer consent
The casuistry with which they can provoke the wrath of their clients is extensive. “If Deloitte uses these tools to obtain information about clients or make decisions about them without their knowledge or consent, it may be considered unethical and may damage our reputation,” they warn. They also consider the use of artificial intelligence “to obtain information about customers or to make decisions about them without their knowledge or consent” to be dangerous.
The company asks its employees not to use their company email to open accounts with OpenAI – the creator of ChatGPT – unless specifically authorized. And if they already have it open, he tells them to notify their manager “as soon as possible”. They must also inform the client if they use AI in a project “and obtain their consent”.
The suspicion of bad practices that can arise from the use of artificial intelligence does not only affect companies. The European Union wants to regulate ChatGPT because of its impact on user privacy, its potential for spreading misinformation, and potential job destruction. And one of its key members, Italy, has gone even further and decided to block access for violating privacy regulations as it collects user data illegally.
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