ChatGPT is impressive. Don’t paste secrets into it
A million people tried ChatGPT in its first week. It’s useful, and everything you type may be read and used.
OpenAI released ChatGPT last week, and it reached a million users in about five days. It writes emails, explains code and drafts documents surprisingly well. People are already using it at work.
Before you do, read the FAQ. OpenAI says conversations may be reviewed by its trainers and used to improve its systems. It’s a research preview. Treat it like a public place.
So, for now:
- No passwords, keys or credentials. Ever.
- No customer or employee personal data.
- No confidential code, contracts or financials.
- Check what it tells you. It can be confidently wrong, and it invents sources.
For managers: your team will try it this week whatever you say. Give them a simple rule instead of silence: public or harmless material only, and a person checks anything that leaves the company.
This will change how we work. Let’s not start by leaking.