In November 2022, OpenAI released an AI chatbot called ChatGPT. After its release, the tool quickly became popular in the technology field. While it is a great support tool for many people, it is also a threat to some other people and brands. Amazon is one of the brands that is not satisfied with the popularity of ChatGPT.
The company is very vigilant and has strictly warned its employees not to interact with ChatGPT. It warns employees not to use ChatGPT to write code or share the written code with ChatGPT to complete.
Amazon's internal Slack communication channel has raised many questions from staff about how to use the ChatGPT virtual assistant.
Some staff asked Amazon if there were any official guidelines for using ChatGPT on workflowers.
Others wonder whether they are allowed to work with AI tools. An employee is urging Amazon's cloud computing division, AWS, to clarify his views on the use of " generated AI tools (AIGC)."
A Amazon lawyer immediately took part in the discussion. An internal communication screenshot on Slack shows the lawyer warning employees not to provide ChatGPT with any confidential information of Amazon.
This information includes source code from Amazon that is being written. He also advised employees to follow the company's current non-disclosure policy, as some of ChatGPT's feedback appears to be very similar to the internal situation of Amazon.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a conversation AI tool that answers queries with clearer and sometimes very smart answers. The rapid rise of ChatGPT is likely to break some of its current position in the technology industry. Media and health care services are the most vulnerable.
The way the companys employees share confidential information with ChatGPT and what its developer, OpenAI, does with it could become a major industry hit. This issue is very important for Amazon because their not-so-competitive opponent, Microsoft, has invested heavily in OpenAI, reportedly up to 10 billion USD.
Amazon tracks staff to see who is using ChatGPT
Amazon has a number of internal protections available for ChatGPT users. For example, a screenshot shows that when employees use their work experience to access the ChatGPT website, a warning notification will pop up saying they are about to access a third-party service that may not be approved for use by Amazon Security.
users participating in chats on Slack channel said they can ignore messages by simply clicking on the "Confirmation" tab. Employees speculate that the warning pop-up window is to prevent them from sticking confidential information to ChatGPT, especially when they have not seen the company's internal usage policy.
Employees share views
However, some Amazon employees have used AI tools as software code assistants to help improve internal code lines.
An employee said he shared Amazon interviews for open-ended programming positions on ChatGPT. According to this employee's Slack post, the AI model provides accurate solutions to a number of technical problems.
I was both worried and excited to see how this would impact the way we conducted code-writing interviews, the employee shared.
In general, Amazon staff participating in Slack chats are excited about the potential of ChatGPT. They even question whether Amazon is developing a competitive product.
The company's lawyer has warned employees not to use ChatGPT and said Amazon is speeding up the development of similar technology such as Alexa voice assistant and CodeWhisperer proposal service as an example.
