I probably haven’t been thinking enough about how the budget for AI might come at the cost of several other IT projects and what that might mean in terms of old, insecure, and inefficient technology not being replaced.
As I have said before, if your data is stored somewhere outside your control, it’s only a matter of time before it gets hacked. Your AI assistant will have a lot of private information, making it a prime target.
This makes me wonder if eDiscovery productions shouldn’t be done using a solution like SharePoint, with permissions that allow the opposing side to read documents online but not download a copy. Thus, they would not have a copy to upload to a GenAI platform.
I also understand why this happens, though. Even out-of-the-box AI tools like Copilot or ChatGPT require some level of data access and security. That’s a complicated task that, in normal times, would require a months-long project, at minimum.
Custom AI projects that require sharing data across your environment and allowing the model access to all that data in a way that shuts everyone up about what they can’t do with AI will lead to mistakes. We’re seeing them, just like when people rush other IT projects under fire to implement technology they don’t have time to understand.
Generative AI is already creating positive change and will continue to do so. It is also making very negative changes as well, with deepfake porn, fake video and audio, scams and disinformation proliferation, etc.
I believe it will change our world, but not in the way AI founders think it will or promise that it will. It will also hurt a lot of people along the way. History will have to decide if it was worth it.
So much of Copilot is work behind the scenes. The $30 per month cost per license is just the icing on the AI cake. The actual cost of ownership is the work involved in Information Governance and Security, planning, training, etc. You should never forget that when integrating any new technology, especially with AI.