Article for DZone by Jason Bloomberg
With GenAI, anyone can work directly with AI and type whatever prompt they want into any GenAI tool—including corporate AI tools that can access internal data.
If you’re ancient like me, you probably remember Lotus Notes. The leading groupware platform of the last millennium, it not only provided corporate email and pre-Slack communications, it also empowered anyone in the organization to build and publish mini-web sites for anyone to use.
It didn’t take long for this whole employee empowerment train to go off the rails. Suddenly, Madge in accounting could slap up a site that exposed private corporate data—with the IT organization none the wiser. No testing, no compliance, no oversight at all.
Shadow IT had reared its ugly head. IT had heretofore controlled all technology deployments across the organization, holding the tech reins for any department or individual looking to deploy any software-based asset.
Now, anyone could do so, essentially mounting their own IT effort in the shadows.
Today, AI is facing a similar challenge. Not too long ago, all corporate AI efforts required deep technology expertise, and thus they resided under the control of IT (or some other technology department) that presumably knew what it was doing.
Machine learning, deep learning (like computer vision), AIOps, and the rest of the AI pantheon were comfortably ensconced in the cubicles of the technologists.
Then along came generative AI (GenAI). Suddenly, anyone can work directly with AI. Even Madge can type whatever prompt she wanted into ChatGPT or some other tool—including corporate AI tools that can access internal data.
Welcome to your shadow AI nightmare.
