AI tools and online meetings at work

(Apologies in advance if this all sounds a bit "heavy" - I mean no criticism - rather, it is an important protective arena for us all as individuals and workplace organisations to consider carefully).

A cautionary signpost note (not legal advice, rather: a prompt for you to discuss your plan with your own organisation / company group counsel - or your profession's industry body guidance team - to consult with them for their legal advice - specific and relevant to your workplace operation):

When someone plans to use AI (or other programmes) in the workplace to translate, transcribe, or close caption commercial meetings (with and without people attending from other organisations  / companies) - please do first, very carefully, read through the terms and conditions of the services you have short-listed to potentially use.

Some so-called "free services" (or other fee-based applications) actually reserve the right to effectively harvest and use for their organisation's benefit (whatever) information you feed through their system. 

This means that for some of these useful-sounding services; you could, unwittingly, either become in breach of non-disclosure agreements, or the data protection legislation applicable in your territory. 

For instance, it can matter greatly - the territory in which the services process / store the data involved in providing their service.

Depending upon quite just how sensitive / government / legislation / potentially internationally or national security sanctions-relevant your particular workplace products or services may be - you might also need to consider more stringently: would use of the platform / app you thought of using potentially be considered a breach of those conventions / arrangements / treaties / laws? 

For example, in the case of your company / organisation knowing that you are not allowed to sell or share certain of your products / services / knowledge to particular countries ...and yet a (seemingly innocent) app use in the workplace were to increase the risk of making your technology / knowledge available to those same countries where sanctions apply - what might be the repercussions or unintended consequences?

In our workplaces; it is a carefully observed and vigilant path in order  to protect and preserve: confidentiality, personal sensitive data, intellectual property and safeguard national security.

The UK ("National Security Strategy 2025: Security for the British People in a Dangerous World (NSS 2025)"), and other governments, are currently asking everyone to up-skill their operations - in pursuit of the endeavour; to bolster whole-of-society resilience:

www.gov.uk/.../national-security-strategy-2025-security-for-the-british-people-in-a-dangerous-world

This default attitude of mind (with real world operation implications) does not just apply to the advent of AI deployment, it has long been a problem organisations and companies have needed to prudently consider carefully and navigate well.

Everyone, both in and outside of the workplace, has their individual role to play - in support of achieving whole-of-society resilience - it is not just the preserve of our military defence / cyber security / intelligence community organisations. 

We (each of us) can (daily) play our small role (and yet cumulatively effectively so) by: refreshing our day-to-day vigilance and resilience.

That is what many governments and nations are currently asking their respective populations to collectively embrace. 

It is not about alarming people - instead, it is a matter of sharing education to help build confidence, add to life skills and afford the availability of resourcefulness within our communities.

Many countries have been launching communication and training campaigns (to help their communities to better appreciate the role individuals can contribute towards the joint resilience objective).

The UK, as with many other countries, has a resilience campaign in preparation to share with their population:

"The strategy will also launch public communications to inform citizens about preparedness for risks. This will be supported by the UK Resilience Academy’s training offer to all those across our society who play a vital role in our national resilience."

(Apologies in advance if this all sounds a bit "heavy" - I mean no criticism - rather, it is an important protective arena for us all as individuals and workplace organisations to consider carefully).

A cautionary signpost note (not legal advice, rather: a prompt for you to discuss your plan with your own organisation / company group counsel - or your profession's industry body guidance team - to consult with them for their legal advice - specific and relevant to your workplace operation):

When someone plans to use AI (or other programmes) in the workplace to translate, transcribe, or close caption commercial meetings (with and without people attending from other organisations  / companies) - please do first, very carefully, read through the terms and conditions of the services you have short-listed to potentially use.

Some so-called "free services" (or other fee-based applications) actually reserve the right to effectively harvest and use for their organisation's benefit (whatever) information you feed through their system. 

This means that for some of these useful-sounding services; you could, unwittingly, either become in breach of non-disclosure agreements, or the data protection legislation applicable in your territory. 

For instance, it can matter greatly - the territory in which the services process / store the data involved in providing their service.

Depending upon quite just how sensitive / government / legislation / potentially internationally or national security sanctions-relevant your particular workplace products or services may be - you might also need to consider more stringently: would use of the platform / app you thought of using potentially be considered a breach of those conventions / arrangements / treaties / laws? 

For example, in the case of your company / organisation knowing that you are not allowed to sell or share certain of your products / services / knowledge to particular countries ...and yet a (seemingly innocent) app use in the workplace were to increase the risk of making your technology / knowledge available to those same countries where sanctions apply - what might be the repercussions or unintended consequences?

In our workplaces; it is a carefully observed and vigilant path in order  to protect and preserve: confidentiality, personal sensitive data, intellectual property and safeguard national security.

The UK ("National Security Strategy 2025: Security for the British People in a Dangerous World (NSS 2025)"), and other governments, are currently asking everyone to up-skill their operations - in pursuit of the endeavour; to bolster whole-of-society resilience:

www.gov.uk/.../national-security-strategy-2025-security-for-the-british-people-in-a-dangerous-world

This default attitude of mind (with real world operation implications) does not just apply to the advent of AI deployment, it has long been a problem organisations and companies have needed to prudently consider carefully and navigate well.

Everyone, both in and outside of the workplace, has their individual role to play - in support of achieving whole-of-society resilience - it is not just the preserve of our military defence / cyber security / intelligence community organisations. 

We (each of us) can (daily) play our small role (and yet cumulatively effectively so) by: refreshing our day-to-day vigilance and resilience.

That is what many governments and nations are currently asking their respective populations to collectively embrace. 

It is not about alarming people - instead, it is a matter of sharing education to help build confidence, add to life skills and afford the availability of resourcefulness within our communities.

Many countries have been launching communication and training campaigns (to help their communities to better appreciate the role individuals can contribute towards the joint resilience objective).

The UK, as with many other countries, has a resilience campaign in preparation to share with their population:

"The strategy will also launch public communications to inform citizens about preparedness for risks. This will be supported by the UK Resilience Academy’s training offer to all those across our society who play a vital role in our national resilience."