AI is all ears.
Innovative office technology powered by artificial intelligence is eavesdropping on your conversations, potentially exposing trade secrets and office gossip, making this tool a dangerous nuisance.
Researcher and engineer Alex Bilzerian recently took me to X We explained how Otter AI, the platform we used to transcribe Zoom meetings with venture capitalist firms, accidentally leaked confidential conversations.
After the meeting, Bilzerian received an email with the call record and realized that the smart assistant continued to record the conversation even after Bilzerian logged off. He said the records “included many hours of their time.” [the investors from the venture capital firm] What followed was a private conversation in which they discussed intimate and confidential details of their business. ”
He said the investors had “deeply apologized” but Bilzerian still decided to cease doing business with his company. The Washington Post.
Although it might be a “reasonable assumption” that an AI assistant would detect when a participant leaves a meeting and not send the rest of the recording, Hatim Rahman, an associate professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, said He told the Washington Post. That technology is not always accurate.
Otter AI I responded to Bilzerian's X post The company reiterated its commitment to user privacy, saying it “understands your concerns” and is “committed to keeping your information private and secure.”
“Users have full control over conversation sharing permissions and can change, update, or stop conversation sharing permissions at any time,” the company wrote.
“In this particular example, users can choose not to automatically share transcripts with anyone, or to automatically share conversations only with users who share the same Workspace domain.”
Meanwhile, OtterPilot, an AI assistant that records and transcribes meetings, only captures the audio of the call, so it doesn't record what muted participants say.
People on the call will also receive a notification that the meeting is being recorded and that their virtual assistant will appear as a meeting participant, according to the Washington Post.
The Company may also collect meeting screenshots, including text and other media uploaded by participants, and in some cases may share them with third parties and law enforcement agencies that assist or promote Otter. .
Rob Bezdijian, the owner of a Salt Lake City events business, told The Washington Post that he once lost a deal because a potential investor refused to record a meeting with Otter. . The result is specific details.
Naomi Brockwell, a researcher and privacy advocate, said: “I think this is a big problem because this technology is spreading rapidly and people don't fully realize how invasive it is.'' It's because they don't understand.”
Brockwell warned that AI increases the risk of trade secrets being compromised and opens up the possibility of litigation.
Will Andre, a cybersecurity consultant, warns against the ignorant widespread use of AI tools across companies, and when he previously worked in marketing, he posted a document on his company's public server discussing layoffs. He told The Washington Post that he had discovered recordings that included footage of his superiors in action.
“Companies need to recognize that these products will be used by people of various ages and technical abilities,” Rahman added.
AI-powered software and devices have recently come under increased scrutiny as more companies incorporate AI into their products.
Apple created Apple Intelligence and Google recently announced Gemini. The use of artificial intelligence on social media platforms has also sparked outrage among users of platforms like Meta, which uses publicly available user data to train Meta AI.
