Safety With ChatGPT: Turning GenAI Risks Into GenAI You Can Trust
ChatGPT has undoubtedly taken the world by storm. Yet with the immense power to transform the CX landscape for the good also comes the bad and the ugly. We’ve all seen the stories – an attorney referencing made up cases, employees sharing confidential information, and the bot instructing people on illegal activities. These serious risks to a brand’s identity and reputation have caused numerous executives, analysts, and reporters to caution against using it directly on your company’s website. So, does this mean you forgo capitalizing on GenAI and stick to your intent-based bots? Absolutely not. The first step to leveraging generative AI safely is educating yourself on the risks so you’re prepared to safeguard against them. Let’s dive in.
When it comes to ChatGPT, LLMs, and GenAI chatbots, what safety concerns should you have?
The four biggest and most visible risks are (1) manipulation, (2) hallucination, (3) unpredictability, and (4) security risks regarding confidential information or Personally identifiable information (PII).
Manipulation
Chatbots are programmed with certain rules. However, this doesn’t mean that a savvy consumer can’t get past them or trick the bot into breaking its own rules. Without guardrails, consumers are in a position to “trick the bot” into giving unapproved responses such as refunds or store credits outside of policy, generating biased, offensive, or harmful content, or engaging in unsafe conversations such as politics or religion.
Hallucination
Bots have the power to generate and spread inaccurate information, and they can do so with a LOT of confidence. Hallucination is the ability for LLMs to pull knowledge from wrong, non-traceable, or unapproved sources and appear convincingly right.
Unpredictability
Beyond the risks of chatbots hallucinating, there is also the risk of misinformation. If you provide no direction and leave the decision to the generative AI chatbot on what information can be used, you have no way of predicting what responses it will give, thus leaving yourself vulnerable to delivering inaccurate and unpredictable information to your customers.
Security Issues
When you use Open AI’s ChatGPT, any information provided to it becomes part of the public domain LLM, and it has no way of identifying what is confidential and PII data. This has caused some serious security issues and led to organizations restricting or banning employees use of ChatGPT out of fear that they can leak proprietary information into the models. In addition to security, organizations and developers need to ensure ethical use of LLM bots, ensuring they are considering potential biases and the impact on individuals and communities. Deploying GenAI responsibly always requires clear guidelines, user feedback mechanisms, and regular audits.
Other Common Risks
In addition to the 4 biggest risks we’ve outlined above, bots also need to be safeguarded against some additional threats to your business, including the inability to follow a logical path, the inability to automate complex tickets and questions, going off topic, and going off brand.
So I know the risks. Now what?
It’s clear why there is fear and trepidation around ChatGPT and “uninhibited LLMs” because of the lack of control around their CX, and, naturally, the risk to a brand’s hard-earned reputation. Yet it’s also clear that generative AI will shape the future of CX, helping organizations to increase efficiency, generate revenue through meaningful interactions, and transform customer experience strategy. We believe that before putting generative AI in customer-facing scenarios, you should always ensure you’re working with a solution you can trust. So ask the right questions, keep safety, control, and expertise at the forefront, and move forward confidently with generative AI you can trust.
Want to take a deeper dive into the world of Generative AI? Check out our Get Smart Guide.