CASE STUDY:

Helping Develop Internal AI Usage Guidance

The Assignment?

As artificial intelligence [AI] tools and usage became increasingly common across departments, questions started appearing faster than answers. . .

What tools could or should be used? What information was being input into those systems & how safe or accurate were the outputs? And perhaps most importantly, what exactly were these platforms doing with the information being provided to them?

Those questions also moved beyond the AI technology or usage itself.

Who owned the AI-generated outputs? Could confidential information entered into AI systems be used to train its models or disclosed to third-parties? What rights were being granted — knowingly and inadvertently — to platform providers? What risks could arise when AI-generated content became part of company-owned intellectual property, products, campaigns & creative works?

Before any guidance could be developed, those questions needed answers.

The Work:

Attorney Elle helped support the development of internal AI usage guidance by researching emerging issues, collaborating across departments, and evaluating the legal, practical and compliance implications associated with commonly used AI platforms and tools.

The work included reviewing & analyzing platform terms of use, privacy policies, AI usage policies, disclosure requirements, and generative AI terms to better understand:

  • ownership of AI-generated outputs;

  • treatment of prompts and user-submitted information;

  • model-training practices;

  • platform rights and restrictions;

  • intellectual property implications;

  • confidentiality concerns;

  • privacy considerations; and

  • potential compliance-related risks.

Particular attention was paid to creative, marketing, advertising, and design-related use cases where AI-generated content could become part of company-owned campaigns, products, games, creative assets, and other intellectual property.

Attorney Elle also worked with stakeholders across multiple departments to identify use cases, recurring concerns, and practical considerations that could inform future guidance and decision-making.

The Result?

Research, recommendations, and working guidance were developed to help address emerging questions surrounding artificial intelligence & provide a foundation for future discussions regarding organizational use of AI technologies.

The Takeaway:

Understanding what an AI platform/tool can do is important.

Understanding what its terms allow it to do may be even more important.