Tag: Slack

The controversy is served within Slack, a company that in recent months boasted about the capabilities of its Artificial Intelligence. The reason: the training process that their AI has undergone has been carried out by collecting information from Slack users without their consent. This, as expected, has generated many complaints from its users.

An AI trained without consent

As users of Slack have revealed on social media in recent days, the communication platform focused on businesses has included a brief message in its fine print warning that all information deposited in Slack can be used for training its Artificial Intelligence, Slack AI. This, being a hidden notice that could have gone completely unnoticed, generated numerous criticisms from its community.

Slack, on the other hand, wanted to make it clear that, although the company is using user data to train its AI-based systems, anyone can contact the company to request on a personal level that their data not be used for the training of these systems that apply machine learning to become more effective.

Hello from Slack! To clarify, Slack has platform-level machine-learning models for things like channel and emoji recommendations and search results. And yes, customers can exclude their data from helping train those (non-generative) ML models. Customer data belongs to the…

— Slack (@SlackHQ) May 17, 2024

Slack’s plans with AI

The intention of Slack to compete in the booming Artificial Intelligence segment was already known, a market that is not yet fully defined and with a scenario that will provide an advantage to companies that have been able to occupy this space more quickly. That is why the company has preferred to take all the relevant shortcuts, including the use of information from its users without having consulted them beforehand. Users can still choose to refuse the use of their data, but the notice, for many users, comes late and secretly.

Legally, it is a problem that another company like OpenAI has already gone through, and they have solved it through the creation of codes of good practices. Since it is not an illegal act in itself, but negative in terms of public opinion, Slack will have to consider how to address this issue in the short term. Because, even OpenAI has faced complaints from companies like The New York Times, after breaching an agreement between both companies due to a supposed error by ChatGPT.

If someone thinks of “2023” and “technology,” it’s hard not to think about Artificial Intelligence, one of the trendiest concepts in this field where all companies are seeking their share of the pie. In fact, Slack, in the words of its CEO, Lidiane Jones, has publicly positioned itself as another company to consider in the race for AI.

As a result, the CEO claims that one of Slack’s biggest advantages in this technology is that the company has higher-quality data than the competition to train its systems. Therefore, according to Lidiane Jones, all competitors should keep an eye on Slack’s progress to avoid falling behind.

Direct competition for Microsoft

Lidiane Jones is a former Microsoft employee who took the reins of Slack at the beginning of 2023, making this her first year in charge. However, she doesn’t hesitate to claim that Slack is not lagging behind Microsoft in terms of progress in AI, even though the tech giant has made many advances in this area.

In fact, in recent weeks, we have witnessed how Slack has introduced a significant number of innovations for users, adding services and functionalities focused on productivity, as well as the core of its services, and these changes have been largely driven by Artificial Intelligence.

AI in terms of productivity

One of the most useful aspects of AI-based functionalities is the improvements they can offer to office workers in terms of productivity. The ability to customize services and tailor them to each user’s needs allows each worker to work more easily and efficiently.

However, AI is a double-edged sword with risks. Just as it can be a very useful tool to assist in work, it can also be used to eliminate jobs and allow large companies to increase their profit margins.

This is already happening today, with companies laying off qualified professionals, even though the quality of their end product may be compromised because generative AI has often backfired on companies when used improperly.