AI is all ears.
Innovative office tech that utilizes artificial intelligence is listening in on your conversations and runs the risk of leaking company secrets and workplace gossip, turning the tool into a dangerous nuisance.
Alex Bilzerian, a researcher and engineer, recently took to X to explain how Otter AI, a platform he used to transcribe a Zoom meeting with a venture capitalist firm, accidentally spilled a confidential conversation.
After the meeting ended, Bilzerian received an email of the call’s transcript — and realized the smart assistant had continued to record the conversation even after Bilzerian had logged off. The transcript, he said, included “hours of their [the investors from the venture capital firm] private conversations afterward, where they discussed intimate, confidential details about their business.”
While the investors “profusely apologized,” Bilzerian still decided to stop the deal with their firm, he told The Washington Post.
It might be a “reasonable assumption” to think the AI assistants could detect when participants exit a meeting and not send the rest of the transcript, but Hatim Rahman, an associate professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, told The Washington Post that the tech is not always accurate.
Otter AI responded to Bilzerian’s X post to reiterate the company’s commitment to user privacy, explaining that they “understand the concerns” and “are committed to keeping your information private and secure.”
“Users have full control over conversation sharing permissions and can change, update, or stop the sharing permissions of a conversation anytime,” the company wrote.
“For this specific instance, users have the option not to share transcripts automatically with anyone or to auto-share conversations only with users who share the same Workspace domain.”
Meanwhile, OtterPilot, the AI assistant that records and transcribes meetings, only captures the audio from the call, so it will not record anything said by a muted participant.
People on the call will also receive a notification that the meeting is being recorded and the virtual assistant will appear as a meeting attendee, according to The Washington Post.
The company can also collect screenshots of meetings — including text or other media uploaded by participants — which can be shared with third parties that support or advertise with Otter or law enforcement in some cases.
Rob Bezdijan, the owner of a Salt Lake City events business, once lost a deal opportunity because he refused to allow the potential investors to record the meeting on Otter, telling The Washington Post he was wary of allowing his business ideas to be recorded and omitted certain details as a result.
“I think it’s a big issue because the technology is proliferating so fast, and people haven’t really internalized how invasive it is,” researcher and privacy advocate Naomi Brockwell told the outlet.
Brockwell warned that AI increases the risk of leaked company secrets and opens up the possibility of lawsuits.
Will Andre, a cybersecurity consultant, cautioned against uninformed, widespread use of AI tools across companies, telling The Washington Post that in his former marketing role he came across a recording on the company’s public servers containing footage of his bosses discussing layoffs.
“There has to be awareness from companies that people of different ages and tech abilities are going to be using these products,” Rahman added.
AI-powered software and devices have been under harsh scrutiny lately, as more companies integrate the tech into their products.
Apple created Apple Intelligence, while Google recently launched Gemini. The use of artificial intelligence on social media platforms has also incited anger among users of platforms like Meta, which trains Meta AI using publicly available user data.