ChatGPT: Use caution, protect data

A message from Vice President for Information Technology & CIO Mur Muchane

Dear Colleagues,

As many of you are aware, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a very popular and interesting topic. With the introduction of ChatGPT and other AI services, there is a great deal of fascination (justifiably) with the technology. That said, as with any technology, our duties to protect and preserve the data we use to perform our work do not change. A recent disclosure of data and information by Samsung into ChatGPT has some valuable lessons for all of us.

Wake Forest University does not have any legal agreements with any AI developer that permit WF to share protected data with such developers or that provide any assurance of data confidentiality. This means that putting data into ChatGPT or similar services may disclose confidential data to the public. As AI finds its way into various projects and processes in and outside of the classroom, Information Systems urges our community to apply the same data-sharing precautions used every day with these or other new technologies.

Specifically, this means the following information should not be placed into any AI service:

Any data whose disclosure to the public would be considered a breach under FERPA, HIPAA, PCI, GLBA or any other Federal or State Statute. Examples include (not exhaustive):

• SSN
• Credit Card Numbers
• Personally identifiable medical information
• Financial Aid information
• Personally identifiable information from student education records
• Personally identifiable information from employee personnel records

Additionally, great caution is suggested with the following information:

• Research data/Intellectual Property
• Source code
• Proprietary data
• Internal meeting notes
• Hardware related information
• Presentation notes
• Emails

While generative AI may prove to be a valuable tool, we have no control over how your data is stored and accessed by these platforms. Please be mindful of data stewardship responsibilities and utilize best data practices as you explore these new technologies and their capabilities. It may also help to review our quick video guide, Data Handling Responsibility at Wake Forest University