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Saturday, February 25, 2023

An item originally published online by Bloomberg, about Wall Street and ChatGPT. The "not invented here" dimension.

Seattle Times link, carrying the story without the paywall or registration required. 

SeaTimes title: "Wall Street’s ChatGPT nightmare is over before it starts as banks crack down Feb. 24, 2023 - Bloomberg"

Coincidently, "Bloomberg’s Jenny Surane, Heng Xie, Chien-Hua Wan, Jing Zhao and Dina Bass contributed to this report."

Crabgrass readers should read the entire item, while the focus here is on the ending:

Global banks that paid $2 billion in U.S. sanctions when their employees embraced unmonitored communications channels such as WhatsApp for business are likely to tread carefully in using third-party AI platforms.

Indeed, JPMorgan, the nation’s largest bank, has already restricted its staff’s use of ChatGPT, a person familiar with the matter said this week. Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have taken similar steps, as have Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo, according to people familiar with those decisions.

Bank of America told employees that ChatGPT and OpenAI are prohibited from business use, according to people with knowledge of the matter. In their regular, routine reminder of unauthorized apps including WhatsApp, the bank added a reference to ChatGPT specifically, and has repeated in internal meetings that new technology must be vetted before it can be used in business communications, the people said.

A representative for Bank of America declined to comment.

Banks’ reticence to let employees use ChatGPT is at odds with their longtime use of artificial intelligence and machine learning more broadly.

At Citigroup, for instance, thousands of auditors have been using IBM’s machine learning and natural language processing technology to improve their reviews. Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, openly touts its tools that use machine learning techniques to help clients with hedging trades.

Goldman's invented here, not invented here dichotomy explains much. 

Microsoft employees likely are among the few who would never say, "Google it."