According to a document seen by foreign media The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the matter, Apple has restricted the use of ChatGPT and other external artificial intelligence (AI) tools, and the company is developing its own similar technology.
Apple is concerned that employees using such AI programs could leak confidential data, the documents show. Apple also told employees not to use Microsoft-owned code hosting platform GitHub’s Copilot, which automates the writing of software code.
Apple is known for its strict security measures to protect future products and consumer data. At the same time, many organizations have become wary of chatbot technology, as their employees have begun using the tools for everything from writing emails and marketing materials to writing software. On Thursday, OpenAI officially launched the ChatGPT app for iOS on the Apple App Store.
Apple’s AI efforts are led by John Giannandrea, whom Apple poached from Google in 2018. Giannandria is a senior vice president at Apple, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. Under his leadership, Apple has acquired several AI startups.
On the most recent quarterly earnings call, Tim Cook expressed some concerns about progress in the field of generative AI. He believes that while AI’s potential is “very interesting,” its deployment needs to be “deliberate and thoughtful.”
