External AI Ban to Prevent Data Leaks
In-house AI 'H Chat Pro' Replaces ChatGPT
Complaints Surge: "Too Slow, Responses Stop"
Hyundai Motor and Kia have reportedly suspended the use of external artificial intelligence (AI) models such as ChatGPT within the company. This decision was made due to concerns that entering data into ChatGPT to obtain answers could lead to the leakage of sensitive company information. Instead, Hyundai Motor Group has enhanced and is providing its own AI model, 'H Chat.' However, there are complaints that its service performance is inferior to that of big tech companies, resulting in reduced work efficiency.
According to the automotive industry on August 6, Hyundai Motor and Kia have blocked the use of external AI models such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok on internal networks and PCs since the beginning of this month. Instead, employees have been instructed via internal announcements to use 'H Chat Pro,' an upgraded version of the in-house AI model 'H Chat,' for work purposes. This is a conversational work support service based on OpenAI's GPT. It can be used for tasks such as summarizing meeting minutes, drafting internal announcements, and creating email templates.
The reason Hyundai Motor and Kia issued the 'ChatGPT ban' is to prevent incidents in which sensitive company information could be leaked. The intention is to avoid accidents like the 2023 case in which a Samsung Electronics engineer accidentally uploaded internal source code to ChatGPT, resulting in a leak. Recently, there have also been incidents where some users' private conversations were exposed online.
A Hyundai Motor official explained, "Sensitive information could be leaked in the process of requesting external AI models to summarize company documents or perform similar tasks," and added, "As H Chat Pro has been enhanced and its performance has improved, employees can now use our own AI model."
However, there are complaints within Hyundai Motor and Kia that H Chat Pro's performance falls short of major AI models. A Hyundai Motor employee who stated they use ChatGPT for more than an hour a day pointed out, "Compared to ChatGPT, it is extremely slow, and responses often stop midway, which reduces work efficiency." Another employee remarked, "It would have been better if sensitive content for security could be handled with H Chat Pro, while general AI could be used for routine tasks."
Concerns remain that security vulnerabilities could persist, as external AI models have not been universally blocked. Hyundai Motor and Kia's internal systems are based on Microsoft (MS), so Microsoft's AI model Copilot can still be used. In addition, it has been found that some PCs are still able to access external AI models such as ChatGPT. A Hyundai Motor Group official stated, "Due to complex security policies, there may have been errors in blocking on some PCs."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
