The importance of AI education in organisations

When organisations are considering implementing generative AI tools like ChatGPT into their processes, education and understanding of the applications are needed.

Matthew Newton, CEO of TechInnocens spoke to Digital Nation about the importance of AI education for employees.

He said understanding AI in general and how it differs from other technology is vital, especially at the leadership level.

“It's important to understand that this is a subtly different technology, we're used to things like calculators, which either gives you the right result or it's broken,” he said.

“This isn't the same, this doesn't give you perfect, correct results; it's not rules-based. We have to anticipate the imperfection of the predictions these technologies give.

“We have to be able to work with that, adjust our approach to using this technology and move away from the ‘computer says no’ mindset.”

This means organisations need to be empowered at the top level and throughout the rest of the business, Newman explained.

“People need to understand what the technology is, what it does, where it has weaknesses, where it has strengths, and what you should and shouldn't do,” he explained.

Putting private personal data into ChatGPT is not smart, Newman said.

“The OpenAI terms for using chatGPT through the normal interface, the terms say they can use anything you type into the interface to help train the next version of ChatGPT. There are known attacks that allow you to extract training data from these models,” he explained,

“If you're putting up their people's personal details or your company's strategy, you're essentially disclosing information to a third party that you have no control over.”

He said there is a need to empower the entire organisation to make the right decision.

“Rather than having one or two people, we need to be able to educate the whole organisation on appropriate use, be able to help them understand what the technology is and when it's right and wrong to use it,” he said.