How to mitigate risks from GenAI content creation
Organizations using GenAI to create content should act immediately to identify and mitigate the associated risks. Failure to do so is likely to result in erroneous and misleading information, and possibly intellectual property rights violations. Based on our experience, we recommend the following guidelines for organizations:
Prohibit GenAI use until the steps below are in place. Have employees sign a policy stating that they won’t use GenAI technologies until their training is complete. Also, consider blocking use of all known GenAI tools within the organization until training on GenAI requirements is underway.
Define and disseminate requirements for GenAI usage. These should include responsibilities for employees, contractors, business partners, suppliers, and anyone else who may be providing AI-generated content for your organization’s use. The potential consequences of violating the requirements should also be stated.
Train everyone who creates, revises, reviews, or otherwise contributes to your content on what the GenAI requirements are, how to comply with them, and how to handle potential violations. Update the training as needed as existing GenAI tools evolve and new tools become available.
Scan all content before publishing it to identify AI-generated material and check it for possible violations of intellectual property rights.
We also recommend the following guidelines for anyone who uses GenAI to create or revise content for work, school, or elsewhere:
Understand the capabilities and limitations of GenAI tools before you use them, as well as best practices for using the tools effectively. This sets reasonable expectations for you and helps avoid unexpected problems with GenAI output.
Document the use of GenAI clearly and prominently within the content. This should include identifying the GenAI tools that were used and summarizing the nature and extent of the GenAI tool use.
Verify the accuracy of all AI-generated content. Fact-check all of the AI-generated content you create. Never assume that any of it is accurate. Content may be highly detailed and look polished, but you should put that aside and focus on meaning. Attractive garbage is still garbage.
If you have suggestions for additional guidelines or feedback on what we’ve proposed, we’d love to hear from you—please share your thoughts in the comments.