Microsoft Temporarily Blocked Internal Access to ChatGPT, Citing Data Concerns

Nov 12, 2023 ·

Microsoft recently temporarily blocked internal access to its promising new language model, ChatGPT, citing data concerns. The company said its engineers were working to address the issue, which sources familiar with the situation described as a “data governance concern” that included ensuring that customer data used to train the model was not exposed to the public.

ChatGPT is a large language model developed by Microsoft and OpenAI that is capable of writing natural-sounding response as if it were having a conversation with a human. It is trained on conversations from real human chat logs in order to learn how to interact with people.

The decision to block access to the model came as a surprise to many, as Microsoft had been openly touting the potential of ChatGPT and had even released limited access to the model to partners. Some within the company felt that the move was overly cautious and would hurt its efforts to stay ahead of competitors in the AI space.

Microsoft’s engineering team is now working to address the data governance issues and ensure customer data used for training the model is not exposed. Additionally, they are seeking to provide better security measures to protect customer information from being accessed by malicious actors.

In the meantime, the decision to block access to the model has had an impact on Microsoft’s business. Several partners have expressed disappointment about the decision and some have indicated that they will be looking into other alternatives.

The news has also sparked a debate around the ethical implications of using customer data to train AI models, with some arguing that companies should be more transparent about their use of customer data and others saying that customers should be able to opt out of such practices.

Ultimately, the decision to temporarily block access to ChatGPT illustrates the complexity of dealing with data privacy concerns and the importance of ensuring customer data is used responsibly. In this age of rapidly evolving technology, companies must take steps to ensure that customer data remains secure while still delivering groundbreaking innovations.