GenAI set to go mainstream in 2024 amidst privacy concerns

As the year 2024 unfolds, the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology into businesses is becoming increasingly important. With the rise of Generative AI (GenAI) and data protection, businesses, regulators, and individuals must adapt to the evolving landscape.

This is particularly poignant in the ASEAN region, where privacy regulations, such as those in Thailand and Indonesia, are still relatively new.

GenAI is becoming the cornerstone of digital transformation, necessitating new skill sets in value creation and risk management. The rapid integration of AI technologies into workflows creates both challenges and opportunities, especially in the realms of data privacy and security.

Five major GenAI trends are predicted for the upcoming year, each requiring the expertise of highly skilled professionals.

1. GenAI is expected to go mainstream in 2024, bringing significant value to various sectors. It is predicted to significantly boost productivity, acting as a virtual collaborator in generating marketing content, data analysis, information summarisation, and even code writing. It will also enhance customer service and assist in business planning and human resources (HR) activities.

However, the mainstreaming of GenAI also raises concerns about privacy, security, and ethics. Businesses need to tread carefully, particularly when using AI-powered chatbots in customer service, as they could unintentionally reveal sensitive information. Developers must also be vigilant against potential biases, data leaks from using confidential information for model training, and security vulnerabilities in AI-generated code.

2. With software types ranging from industry leaders like OpenAI to startups using application programming interfaces (APIs) and existing apps that integrate GenAI functionalities, organisations must conduct thorough due diligence. Our research in August 2023 on 100 mobile clone apps using OpenAI’s GPT APIs revealed significant discrepancies in declared data safety practices and actual behaviour, posing potential privacy risks. In another study, many GenAI apps fell short of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and AI transparency standards.

3. The transition from content creation to content generation poses more privacy, security, and ethics-related breaches. Instances of identity theft using deepfakes and voice cloning are on the rise. The ease of crafting prompts brings a new category of risks: adversarial prompts.

4. Privacy regulators are expected to play a more active role in governing GenAI, especially with the European Data Protection Board and the European Data Protection Supervisor actively contributing to the EU AI Act, expected to pass this year. Concurrently, existing privacy laws like the Personal Data Protection Act and the GDPR continue to play a crucial role, especially where personal data is processed by AI systems.

5. As GenAI welcomes multimodal capabilities, data protection officers and data governance professionals must acquire enhanced privacy management skills, learning to identify and mitigate privacy risks across different data types.

The role of AI in business is evolving rapidly, and with it comes a host of new challenges and opportunities. As we move forward, it will be crucial for businesses to adapt to these changes, harnessing the potential of AI while ensuring privacy and security concerns are addressed, reported Bangkok Post.