As more people start to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace, it is time to consider the acceptable use of AI with your small business. One way you can go about this is through having an AI Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for your employees. 

According to Infosec Institute an AUP is, “agreement between two or more parties to a computer network community, expressing in writing their intent to adhere to certain standards of behaviour with respect to the proper usage of specific hardware & software services.” To simplify, an AUP are the rules of what your employees can and cannot do with your data and technology.

The many uses

AI comes in several different forms from text content generation, computer coding, image generation, video generation, sound generation, personal assistants, and so on. Not only are there multiple forms, there are even more use cases for AI, some being marketing, email response, online chat bots, research, automated actions, and so on.

With so many applications for AI, multiple policies may even be needed, covering the many specific uses.

Security plays a role

With any business policy governing technology, data use, user access, and so on, security has a role to play. When writing these policies it will be important to consider an overall AI strategy and not just a specific tool. The AI tool used today may be different than the one used tomorrow and rewriting a policy every other day is burdensome. So with that in mind, a policy should include considerations of the following:

  • Protection of sensitive & confidential data
  • Data types allowed to be used with the AI
  • Users who have access to the AI and any other systems that integrate
  • Regulatory compliance requirements
  • End user training and security/privacy awareness training
  • Steps taken for any violations of the policy
  • Steps to request new AI tools to be implemented

The above isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s a good foundation for what is considered acceptable use of AI.

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