🔐 Protect Your Work, Not Just Your Job

👋 Welcome! Shadow AI is on the rise—today’s issue unpacks how unapproved tools put your data at risk, and what habits, policies, and safeguards can help protect your company or clients before damage is done.

AI Makes Listening Obsolete – Instagram head Adam Mosseri says Meta isn’t secretly using your phone’s mic—and it doesn’t need to. With powerful AI tools analyzing your interactions across chatbots, apps, and similar users, Meta can serve eerily accurate ads without eavesdropping. As AI grows more integrated, so do the privacy concerns—because in 2025, tech doesn’t need to hear you to know you.

AI for Africa Gains Global Backing – The UK is supporting the G20’s “AI for Africa” initiative to promote ethical, inclusive AI across the continent. Projects include a new AI safety hub in Cape Town and partnerships with African-led organizations to advance research, local innovation, and tech for social good—ensuring communities shape AI to meet their own needs.

Ex-OpenAI Researcher Flags Chatbot Risks – Former OpenAI safety researcher Steven Adler has published an independent analysis of a case where ChatGPT reinforced a user’s delusions for weeks. Adler warns that AI chatbots still risk “sycophancy,” urges better safeguards for vulnerable users, and calls for honest support systems alongside stronger safety tools in future models.

Apple Accelerates Smart Glasses Push – Apple is reportedly shifting staff from Vision Pro to prioritize smart glasses that rival Meta’s Ray-Bans. The “N50” model, expected in 2027, will pair with iPhones, while a more advanced AR version is being fast-tracked. Voice commands, AI, and health-tracking will be key features of both.

Shadow AI Is Risking Careers – New research finds 59% of workers use unapproved AI tools at work, often sharing sensitive company data. Executives are the biggest offenders, despite 64% of employees fearing breaches. Without clear policies and secure AI options, companies risk losing control—turning productivity shortcuts into career-compromising mistakes for teams at every level.

Logitech CEO: AI Needs Hardware – At Logi Work London, Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber said hybrid work and AI are reshaping the workplace. She emphasized that tools like mice and webcams serve as the “eyes, ears, and hands of AI,” and urged companies to create seamless, hardware-optimized environments that attract top talent and boost long-term productivity.

AI Job Loss Fears Overstated – Despite layoffs at firms like Salesforce and Lufthansa, a new Yale study finds no major labor disruption since ChatGPT’s debut. Gartner data shows just 15% of companies use fully autonomous AI, with most favoring supervised tools. AI may shift work styles—but sweeping job extinction still looks more like hype than reality.

Creators Build Beyond the Algorithm – YouTubers are moving away from ad revenue, launching product lines, media companies, and consumer brands to secure income. From MrBeast’s $250M Feastables to Emma Chamberlain’s coffee brand and Logan Paul’s Prime, creators are proving content is just the start—diversification is now essential for career growth and long-term stability.

OpenAI Becomes Top Private Company – OpenAI is now the world’s most valuable private company at $500 billion, overtaking SpaceX and ByteDance. A $6.6B secondary share sale boosted its valuation, with investors like SoftBank and MGX backing its nonprofit-controlled PBC transition and plans to invest trillions in AI data center infrastructure.

DOE Cancels $7.5B in Green Projects – The U.S. Department of Energy has canceled $7.5 billion across 321 clean energy projects—all in states that backed Harris in 2024. Critics say it’s politically motivated; affected states like California and New York have 30 days to appeal the Biden-era funding reversals.

Tesla Surges Before Credit Expires – Tesla posted its best quarter ever, delivering nearly 500,000 vehicles as buyers rushed to claim the expiring $7,500 EV tax credit. The late boost may help Tesla dodge a second annual sales dip, but future momentum remains uncertain amid subsidy cuts and fading consumer incentives.

Fintech Still Shines for BTV – Better Tomorrow Ventures raised a $140M third fund to back early-stage fintech, betting big on AI-driven tools for accounting, compliance, and fraud. Despite market shifts, the firm sees massive opportunity in digitizing finance, with bets like Relay, Unit, and other financial infrastructure startups.

Data today is not just an input—it’s a core asset, a liability, and a moral responsibility. AI systems ingest, transform, and amplify data across every phase of their lifecycle. That means the data you manage for clients or for your company is more exposed than ever, yet also more vital to protect. A breach or misuse of data in AI systems can ripple far beyond legal fines; it can destroy trust, damage reputations, and weaponize personal or sensitive information.

One early step is understanding the AI data lifecycle: from collection, labeling, ingestion, model training, inference, updates, to deletion. New research argues that data protection frameworks must expand: not only “privacy” or “security,” but also traceability, usability control, and deletability across model stages. Also, the U.S. CISA released guidance in 2025 highlighting that protecting AI‑focused data means safeguarding data provenance, verifying integrity in storage & transport, and employing privacy‑preserving techniques like anonymization or differential privacy.

Next is guarding the data supply chain. AI models often rely on third‑party datasets, APIs, or open datasets. A weak source can introduce “poisoned” data or breaches that corrupt your models or expose client data. Joint guidance from U.S. agencies warns of precisely this risk: data supply chain vulnerabilities, drift, and poisoned inputs. Best practices include auditing sources, enforcing contracts for security, and periodically verifying data consistency.

Then there’s controlling real human behavior—the internal data risk. More than half of employees admit using unapproved AI tools at work, and many share sensitive internal data over those tools. This “shadow AI” scenario creates blind spots: productivity shortcuts can become leaks, and internal trust gets eroded. If your team is feeding proprietary information into external LLMs, you lose control over who sees what—or how it’s used. So internal policy, education, and secure sanctioned alternatives are as essential as any technical safeguard.

Another core principle is privacy by design and least data usage. In 2025, privacy and security by design are seen as foundational to AI risk management. Minimize data collected, anonymize where possible, encrypt at transit and rest, segment access. Always ask: “Do we need this data? For how long? Who should see it?”

What also matters is transparency and client communication. Let clients know how their data is used, where it travels, and what protections you’ve built. Use audit logs, access controls, versioning, and modeling documentation. That way, if questions arise—from regulators, clients, or users—you’re ready.

Actionable Insights

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Our Take: For Every Path community, Apollo.io matters because it bridges the gap between intention and execution. If you ever have an idea and want to get it in front of the right people fast, Apollo’s the quiet engine making those connections possible!

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79%

of Americans lack confidence that companies will admit to data misuse—underscoring the need for stronger accountability in how personal data is handled.