Policies around technology usage and data protection have been common in the workplace for a long time now. They are considered essential in a corporate environment to help ensure security of systems and data, as well as to promote suitable behaviours amongst employees.

While policies such as IT usage, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Data Protection have been common for years now, the growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and especially generative AI, is resulting in the adoption of a new technology policy. The corporate AI policy.

With the rapid growth of the technology, some organisations are trying to ensure AI is used in an ethical, conscientious and legal manner by setting out guidance in an AI policy. Reasons for a policy include:

• Meeting legal compliance
• Protecting data privacy
• Mitigating data bias and preventing discrimination
• To ensure ethical use of AI

For example, some policies need to clarify what AI is, and differentiate between the different types.  Some people may be using AI built into software without even realising it.

Using AI content at work

A common use of AI is to generate content. An AI policy can be used to establish best practice to clarify when this can be done and to ensure sufficient emphasis on quality and human editing. Otherwise, an organisations reputation could be harmed by low quality, AI generated content.

Accuracy and fact checking

AI can sometimes make major errors in accuracy as well. For example, I’ve come across cases where references to non-existent articles have been generated. AI policies need to emphasise the importance of checking the accuracy of the output.

AI and copyright

Care is also needed around copyright, another factor for AI policies. An example of this are the AI image generation tools that use existing images available on the internet as the basis for creating new images.

Data protection

With regards to Data Protection, there are certain requirements in the GDPR regulations around the processing of personal data using AI. For instance, people are protected by the GDPR from having AI deployed to make certain decisions based on AI processing their personal data. 

While AI is generating a lot of excitement, it is also causing a lot of concern. This is especially the case with regards to job roles and security.

While an AI policy will be focused on establishing best practice, a good one will also consider the impact of AI on the wellbeing of employees.