Commentary

Commentary: Welcome to the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ AI economy

A don’t-ask-don’t-tell economy seems to be driving the next tech revolution and that should make us all wary of what happens in the dark, says Bloomberg Opinion’s Catherine Thorbecke.

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Catherine Thorbecke

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TOKYO: Do you have any artificial intelligence secrets? Maybe the better question: Would it concern you if your most intimate chatbot queries were shared with your family, colleagues or bosses?

For all the hype, AI still carries a stigma. I’ve been tracking the mounting backlash for a while, but communities now greet new data centre proposals with pitchforks out. It has become deeply uncool to admit that you used computer systems to help you with your art, not to mention that it will be judged more harshly. 

And trust in Big Tech leaders, often for valid reasons, is abysmal. Bashing AI on the internet gets a lot more applause than defending it.

So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that a “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” economy now seems to be driving the next tech revolution. That should make us all wary of what happens in the dark.

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AI USE COMES WITH A “STEEP PENALTY”

A global KPMG-University of Melbourne study last year found that 57 per cent of employees across 47 countries admitted that they have used AI in non-transparent ways, including presenting machine-generated content as their own or avoiding revealing when they used the technology to complete work tasks. (The same report found that rates of non-transparency among students rose to roughly two-thirds, though I can’t imagine that would be under-reported.) 

A survey last November here in Japan, where adoption remains relatively low, found that 59 per cent of young professionals never or almost never disclose AI assistance when submitting work.

Part of the reason for this secrecy is that even as business leaders encourage adoption, research shows that it’s still ostracised in the workplace. More Americans now talk openly about their AI use with managers and colleagues, a June study from Atlassian found, yet doing so carries a “steep penalty”. 

Even when the output itself was identical, participants rated hypothetical peers who disclosed using AI as 10 times “lazier” and were 24 percentage points less likely to recommend them for a high-visibility project. No wonder employees are unlikely to shout their prompts from the rooftops.

ARE THERE POTENTIAL RISKS?

This may also start to explain one of AI’s ongoing economic conundrums. Productivity gains executives aren’t seeing in macro data may be accrued by individual workers who have little incentive to reveal them.

But this culture of secrecy can create other risks for businesses, whether it’s data leaking to unapproved tools, or a lack of knowledge-sharing across teams. The obvious first step is a clear, accessible policy spelling out when AI can be used and when it must be disclosed. Managers should also encourage prompt-sharing, tips and open conversations about experimentations.

There are other consequences to a tech shift unfurling in the shadows that extend well beyond the office. Ask friends how they use chatbots when nobody is watching, and the answers might make you gasp. 

A digital archive project dubbed “What We Tell AI” is already collecting anonymous confessions via boxes placed in parks, shopping malls and even tech conferences across the US. They offer a glimpse at the increasingly intimate ways this technology is being embraced. People are using AI to compose birthday messages to relatives or cheat on homework and the New York Times Spelling Bee game. Others admit they’re in love with ChatGPT, or view it as a best friend. They’re not the use-cases that dominate earnings calls.

AI companies publish reports on how people are adopting their products, but some researchers say this is necessarily selective. Firms preparing for major public offerings or defending enormous spending may be more incentivised to highlight productivity gains and have less reason to dwell on other uses. 

That leaves policymakers with an incomplete picture of a technology proliferating rapidly in people’s jobs, relationships and private lives, including children’s. Regulators hoping to not repeat past mistakes should demand greater transparency from tech companies to allow outside researchers to understand how their products are actually being utilised and what effects they’re having.

The secrecy also reveals a larger problem for the industry. They’re still left hoping that eventually its value will be stronger than the shame of turning to their services. 

That contradiction is especially stark among youth. Young adults in the US are the most likely to think AI will have a negative effect on society, but they’re also the group that says they use chatbots the most, according to a Pew survey in June.

The AI revolution is not being televised; it may be too disjointed for that. The message that this technology could put you all out of work, or at worst kill us all, is hard to dismiss as paranoia. But it’s not stopping people from asking for dating advice, either. That may tell us more about the technology’s future impacts on society than another survey on how many minutes it saves on coding tasks.

What people are unwilling to admit matters more than what the industry is willing to measure.

Source: Bloomberg/sk

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