When the U.S. Department of Justice announced this March its intent to crack down on companies’ use of ephemeral third-party messaging apps that could open the door to spoliation of evidence, Grab general counsel Chris Betts gave a live demonstration to the members of his legal department.
If the DOJ is worried about the preservation of evidence or the potential to cover up nefarious activities, he told them, let’s ask ChatGPT how to adjust Grab’s policies accordingly. He asked the artificial intelligence chatbot to draft internal guidelines around the use of encrypted, disappearing-message apps for a company based in Southeast Asia and publicly listed in the U.S. He went a step further, asking ChatGPT to flesh out its suggestion with examples of communications that shouldn’t be hosted on such apps. Within five minutes, he had before him a “fairly well crafted” internal policy that would be sufficient to demonstrate to the DOJ that Grab, a ride-hailing platform, has considered the issue and communicated its expectations companywide, he said.
