In an internal memo to employees issued this week, Walmart warned its employees not to share any information about the company, its business practices, or its shoppers with generative artificial intelligence tools—especially ChatGPT. The leaked memo, which first circulated on a subreddit for company employees, informed staffers that Walmart’s tech team had previously made the decision to block ChatGPT “after we noticed activity that presented risk to our company.” It did not elaborate on the alleged activity or the risk, but said that having “taken the time” to assess the technology, it had updated its guidelines. Walmart has reopened ChatGPT “for usage within the Walmart network,” however, the memo said, there were expectations that employees not input “any sensitive, confidential, or proprietary information” about Walmart, its associates, or customers into the bot. A spokesperson for Walmart told Business Insider on Tuesday, “It’s not uncommon for us to assess these new technologies and provide our associates with usage guidelines.”
