ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - On gameday in the late 1950s, former UGA and Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton found himself in possession of an opponent’s defensive playbook.
“Holy Cow! Where did you get this!?” Tarkenton recalled exclaiming after a coach handed him the book.
Decades and a few Super Bowl appearances later, Tarkenton, now 85, is protecting business playbooks as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into everyday life.
“The potential is unbelievable,” Tarkenton said. “But also, the risk is equally unbelievable.”
The risk stems from the fact that any information entered into an AI chatbot can become part of its data set and potentially public, exposing company secrets.
“We are loudly, consistently beating the drum of privacy and security,” said Will Adams, president of Tarkenton Companies.
Intelligence platforms, like pipIQ, address this by utilizing an AI system that operates without external models, instead tailoring its functionality specifically to a single business. This approach creates an insulated system where data and information are kept private.
Chatbots represent a new frontier for potential security breaches that companies are actively learning to navigate. Gray Media, the parent company of Atlanta News First, recently launched its own internal AI chatbot, “Ask grAI,” to enhance information protection.
PipIQ is specifically designed to cater to the needs of much smaller businesses.
“We’ve made it very cost-effective for a company with five employees, 50 employees, or a hundred employees,” Tarkenton said.
The primary objective of such AI tools is to generate efficiencies, enabling employees in various roles to quickly access manuals, documents and contracts within a secure, internal system.
This eliminates concerns about sensitive information becoming public.
“AI is changing the world. It really is,” Tarkenton said.
Tarkenton and Adams believe that pipIQ will play a significant role in this transformation, emphasizing that the AI revolution and the ongoing struggle to protect business playbooks are just beginning.
“It’s taking over the world,” Tarkenton added.
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