Does Your Business Have an AI Policy?

Gene Marks says it's essential, because the potential liabilities are probably much greater than you realize. Luckily, says Gene, AI can help write the policy.

Good Morning!

Here are today’s highlights:

• The Supreme Court will decide the fate of TikTok and those who make a living on it.

• Ami Kassar is more than ready for 2024 to end but believes his business will be better because of it.

• It’s likely to get harder for companies to use staffing firms to distance themselves from the hiring of undocumented workers.

• Will domestic producers of olive oil benefit if foreign producers are subject to tariffs?

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Gene Marks says you are putting your business at risk if you don’t implement an AI policy: “You need to take steps to reign in the use of AI in your company. Your concern — at least for now — isn’t about violating any of the few AI laws that exist. Your concern is that AI technology in your company is misused by your employees — willingly or not — and creates potential liabilities that could challenge your business. For example, what if a worker, independently and with the best of intentions, decides to try an AI app that promises to automate their tasks but instead skips over important steps in your quality process? Or uses data incorrectly by sending out unauthorized emails or indiscriminately approving a sales or purchase order? Worse yet, what if an untested AI application deletes your data or exposes it to the wrong people?”

• “So, where to get started? Yeah, you guessed it: AI. Go to ChatGPT, Claude, CoPilot, Gemini, Grok or any other AI chatbot and prompt it to create an AI policy. Try this prompt, which I ‘borrowed’ from ChatGPT: ‘Can you create an AI policy for my business? We are a [industry/type of business] that uses AI for [specific applications or purposes]. Our priorities are [e.g., ethics, compliance, data privacy, transparency, etc.]. Please include [specific elements you’d like, e.g., risk management, accountability, communication guidelines, etc.]. Make it suitable for [audience, e.g., internal teams, external stakeholders, customers].’”

• “A good AI policy just answers these ... questions: What core AI application features are approved for use in the company? I stress singling out ‘features’ because most accounting, CRM, HR, and other applications are already building AI capabilities in their products.”

• “What non-core AI applications are allowed? There are countless apps and tools that leverage generative AI to create art and images, do research, review contracts, and wordsmith correspondence. They’re easy to find and tempting to use. But none of these should be used unless they’ve been vetted.”

• “What departments or teams are allowed to use AI? Is this limited to your marketing group? Your finance team? Your IT group? Ultimately AI will be used throughout your organization. But for now your policy should address only those that are allowed to use it.” READ MORE