iHM Bans ChatGPT Use to Protect Intellectual Property

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, May 31, 2023

iHeartMedia

In an internal iHeartMedia memo sent to staff, Chairman/CEO Bob Pittman and President/COO and CFO Rich Bressler are warning employees not to use ChatGPT or any other artificial intelligence services on company devices. It also asks that staffers not or submit any company information to AI platforms without permission. The move is an effort to protect the company's intellectual property (IP) from being imported into an AI system.

In the memo, both Pittman and Bressler note that the company will roll out its own "iHeart-specific AI solutions," providing all the benefits of AI while protecting the radio giant's information and intellectual property.

"We want to be smart about how we implement these tools to protect ourselves, our partners, our company's information and our user data. For example, if you're uploading iHeart information to an AI platform (like ChatGPT), it will effectively train that AI so that anyone -- even our competitors -- can use it, including all our competitive, proprietary information."

The memo also stated that iHeart is using AI "in certain areas of the company with great results, and we're excited about expanding that to make everyone's work faster and more interesting, and allow us all to make the best use of our time by freeing us from our more mundane and rote tasks."