ChatGPT: Friend or foe for compliance managers?

ChatGPT is the new kid on the AI block. It is a chatbot that has recently emerged in the AI landscape. Released in November 2022 by OpenAI, ChatGPT is a nifty little tool that can provide an answer to most questions, create cover letters for job applications, ace various assessments such as take-home law exams and even the rigorous three-part Medical Licensing Exam mandatory to practice medicine. Despite being banned at most schools and Universities, the International Baccalaureate is allowing its pupils to use ChatGPT in their essays, provided they attribute it.

From writing blogs to suggesting the menu for a three-course meal, ChatGPT can perform a multitude of tasks. Additionally, ChatGPT’s popularity has allowed OpenAI to advertise paid subscriptions to the service so that individuals are not met with the inconvenient message – ‘ChatGPT is at full capacity.’

So, should Compliance Officers be using ChatGPT?

Using ChatGPT for regulatory research

If Chief Compliance Officers are contemplating using ChatGPT to identify regulatory changes and use this information for compliance management, here are a few things to consider:

1. Ask questions but be wary

ChatGPT is a language model designed to interact with users in a conversational way, providing information and assistance across a wide variety of topics – not just the regulatory and compliance landscape. Therefore, ChatGPT is not specialised in the regulatory field and the answers generated cannot be completely trusted. It’s best to fact-check these against the information on official issuing body sites.

2. ChatGPT is clever but does not know everything

ChatGPT can also provide wrong or irrelevant answers and all content generated must be scrutinised before uploading or sharing. It may appear to answer basic regulatory questions such as ‘what regulations do banks have to comply with?’ but cannot tell you exactly which rules are relevant to your specific financial institution. Therefore, it should not be used for regulatory change management purposes.

3. Great for initial research

Whilst ChatGPT cannot be utilised to identify regulatory gaps in the system, it can be used during the initial phase of research when quick answers are required. Compliance Officers are advised to cross-check the information that has been generated.

4. Knowledge gaps in ChatGPT

One of the main drawbacks of ChatGPT as a research tool is that any information published is before 2021. If it was used as a regulatory tool, there would be gaps in your regulatory inventory which can lead to serious fines and reputational damage for non-compliance.  

5. ChatGPT is your search engine

ChatGPT is more suited to answering general questions on regulatory compliance, rather than using it as a tool to address compliance risks.

CCOs should remain cautious when using ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a handy tool for research and idea generation and is similar to a Google search. It can generate quick aggregated summaries of information which are great for those rushed for time when researching.

Using it for regulatory purposes does come with its dangers including how the content on ChatGPT does not consider events or changes from 2021 onwards – this means that Compliance Officers are missing out on over a year of content.

As the volume and complexity of regulations increase, it is understandable why it would be faster to ask ChatGPT questions to quickly build up your knowledge in certain compliance areas such as ESG, cryptocurrency, operational resilience, data privacy and so forth. The variety of regulatory topics is always changing and can be difficult to keep up with.

To take a more proactive approach to regulatory change management, CUBE provides a fully integrated golden source of regulatory information that can be accessed directly within your dashboard. We can help your firm identify upcoming regulatory changes and reach confident compliance through a complete regulatory inventory.

Contact CUBE to reach confident compliance.