One of the top deterrents I hear from nonprofit professionals and public health staff are the ways in which data is being used by these tools. This warrants a much larger conversation than this newsletter will allow, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start?
Not all data is created equal. Case notes are much more sensitive than the public data I downloaded from the Census Bureau. As we think about data privacy, consider how the same tool/use may be appropriate or inappropriate solely based on the data type. Two other quick thoughts – consent is essential (let people opt in/out of having their data in AI land) and the benefit of the tool must outweigh the risk of uploading the data.
Tools like Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot (paid) offer industry leading protections akin to Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive. Third party tools like Claude and ChatGPT share similar protections (dependant upon your account) but may present more risk if you are introducing a new software versus staying in your existing suite of software (Google or Microsoft).
Bonus item – We can use these tools for so much without uploading any data. It is up to us to set our boundaries and use cases. (subscribe for a future edition on this!)
