Ever since AI and machine learning began empowering the digital transformation still influencing the business world, many pundits assumed the emerging technology would replace human workers. However, most use-cases for generative AI focus on improving the productivity of employees by letting them focus on more value-added tasks. A financial trader using a bot for automated trading while they focus on interacting with clients provides one example.
Human-AI collaboration offers hope for improving the efficiency of many business functions, with AI handling mundane tasks where its high-end computing horsepower makes a difference. In short, it complements human expertise as opposed to replacing it. Notably, this pairing also optimizes the process of training the models used in ChatGPT and other generative AI-powered applications. In that use-case, humans provide the critical expertise to ensure a customer service chatbot avoids mentioning corporate secrets or a competitor’s product line when in use.
So let’s analyze the importance of human-AI collaboration in the process of integrating the large language models used for generative AI chatbots, like ChatGPT. All told, employees with a deep understanding of their business domain provide the vital context to ensure models are properly trained. This interaction ultimately plays a crucial role in any successful implementation of generative AI in business.
Given the massive press surrounding generative AI, some executives likely oversimplify the effort involved in properly integrating ChatGPT with their company’s website or application suite. The recent release of the ChatGPT API also facilitates the process to leverage the generative AI tool within third-party applications. However, the risks of taking this approach without sufficient control remain numerous.
What happens if a chatbot shares proprietary information, trade secrets, or even private customer data with the public at large? Another risk involves a bot actually recommending a competitor’s product or service over that of your own company. Needless to say, any haphazard implementation of ChatGPT or any other generative AI large language models brings risks like these to the fore.
Note the inherent risks of implementing any emerging technology like generative AI-powered chatbots using large language models demand a rigorous effort. This process includes human workers providing the necessary context and expertise to ensure chatbots receive the right training, preventing the potentially embarrassing issues described earlier. Let’s take a closer look.
One of the most critical tasks when training large language models for use in generative AI applications involves prompt engineering. This process uses humans serving as domain experts to vet the quality of the output of an AI-powered chatbot. They typically take on the role of various user personas to define the prompts they use when querying the chatbot.
As noted earlier, businesses need to adopt a measured strategy when building an application around any emerging technology, like generative AI and ChatGPT. Significant risks abound with the potential to embarrass companies if a chatbot shares private information. This is especially the case with organizations boasting significant regulatory and compliance requirements. Strong data governance becomes critical!
Prompt engineering combined with siloing the data used in the large language models when training chatbots remains a critical piece of this puzzle. This ensures a data silo used for product information doesn’t include any trade secrets or other proprietary data. At the same time, use another data silo for language a chatbot needs to avoid, like competitor information, obscenities, and other potentially embarrassing phrases.
Essentially, human workers provide the generative AI with the critical context so ChatGPT and other similar tools actually provide a tangible benefit to a company as opposed to the risk of legal liability or embarrassment. Expect this type of human-AI interaction to remain a significant aspect of AI products moving forward. Simply writing some code that uses the ChatGPT API might result in more harm to an organization.
The concept of using advanced AI to replace employees seems like more of a false panacea. While some mundane business tasks benefit from robotic process automation, these remain the exception, not the rule. In fact, automation makes your workers more productive, just look at the increased velocity of software development at shops leveraging DevOps and modern methodologies, like Lean Startup or Agile.
So when brainstorming application ideas that leverage the promise of generative AI, focus on building something to foster interaction and collaboration between employees and their AI assistants. It’s a wise approach to improve productivity and build a company culture that’s the envy of your competitors.
Remember that partnering with a digital agency with expertise in generative AI ensures a successful project outcome. Our team at NineTwoThree combines business acumen with experience in ChatGPT app development and an enviable track record of project success. Schedule some time with us to discuss the possibilities of a future partnership.
