No more ChatGPT? Here's what the 'pause' on generative AI means for the workplace

How far is too far? That seems to be the question when it comes to the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace, and a few experts have recently put their foot down and declared that the boundary has been officially pushed. 

In March, tech titans Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and more signed an open letter published by the Future of Life Institute that urged artificial intelligence developers to "pause giant AI experiments" — particularly those more powerful than ChatGPT and GPT4. The petition, which currently has more than 2,000 signatures, warns the industry against the "profound risks to society and humanity" AI poses, and asks researchers to pause their projects for at least six months.

"Anyone who's been in tech and AI for the last five to seven years has known that this moment was going to come," says Alexa Eden, Human Technologist at AlgoAI Tech, an AI platform that designs matching algorithms for recruitment and entertainment spaces. "We just needed leaders to stand up and say, 'We know the power of this, but also, we don't know the power of this. So to keep everything in check, let's slow down a little bit.'"

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Despite changing the average employee's perspective on AI with an engaging and easy to use interface, the sudden rise of ChatGPT wasn't as well-received in the employer space. Companies such as Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Wells Fargo have all banned the hyper-intelligent chatbot from their offices, despite 60% of employees feeling optimistic that generative AI will make them more productive at their jobs, according to a recent survey from digital insights provider the Harris Poll.

Those who haven't barred ChatGPT entirely have spent the last few months scrambling to draft policies that would keep employees from accidentally leaking confidential data or searching inappropriate content while at work. More than 6% of employees have pasted company data into it since it launched, according to data from tech insights blog Cyberhaven. And more than 3%  of workers have pasted confidential company data into the chatbot, making the regulation of AI imperative to the data privacy of companies. The call for a pause addresses all three camps of people, according to Eden, and sheds light on a reality that employers and employees may not be privy to. 

"Banning it entirely is like telling a teenager not to go out," she says. "But this new evolution of technology is coming out and leaders are saying, 'We know something that you don't know and there are globalized powers that are working on this, so we need to work on it too.'" 

But just because AI and tech leaders are urging a slow down in future endeavors, it doesn't mean that companies that have already invested in the chatbot — such as Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Slack and Coca Cola — have to make any immediate changes. The call to action would only affect the development of AI programs or iterations that go further than those currently on the market. Setting a boundary is simply to stop designers from creating new iterations of a program without taking the time to assess the risks. 

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"This is going to help us think three times ahead of where it's going," Eden says. "If we're just driving 150 miles down the highway with our eyes closed, not sure where it's taking us, we're going to lose sight of where we're going. We know that AI is very delicate. To prevent biases, to prevent privacy leaks, to prevent misinformation being put out there, you have to go slow." 

For employers who have already made significant integrations, they should be using the pause on AI-related progress as a time to gather as much insight and information as possible from employee input. Assessing what employees are using the chatbot for, what they're searching for and what are helpful patterns and trends could help employers build sustainable uses for the tech they've invested in. 

As for employers who are hesitant, the downtime could provide them with the space to find a place in their organization for chatbots and generative AI. At the end of the day, the use of AI will persist past the proposed pause, according to Eden. The idea is to plan ahead, not fall behind. 

"Find the areas that our employees do want some help and do want some support, and invest in plugins that are going to specifically support them in the general direction of ChatGPT and generative AI," she says. "[Employees] are still going to expect to use AI in the workforce, and you don't want to be a company that's entirely turned off to that. The pause is going to give companies a lot of space to explore."