Experts say shadow artificial intelligence systems are increasingly being deployed in organizations, exposing them to security, legal and financial risks.
Shadow AI could put sensitive enterprise data in danger, according to an article in Information Week, which shared insights from HP Federal Chief Technology Officer Tommy Gardner, FICO Chief Analytics Officer Scott Zoldi and BARR Advisory Consulting Manager Larry Kinkaid.
Such AI programs emerge when well-intentioned software engineers try out programs without the authorization of management. They often end up being part of processes without oversight.
“If the IT team isn’t aware that these programs are in use, they can’t take appropriate preventive measures to get ahead of the issue and company data could be compromised,” said Gardner, a key member of Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Expert program. “While these tools can be great options to solve a problem in the short term, they pose a potential security issue for the organization,” he added.
Companies dealing with shadow AI should establish acceptable use policies and ensure that the AI algorithms are protected under a secure and private network by blocking open source code access, the other experts recommended.