A critical look at AI

By Emma Peterson. 

Trent Cotney and Jon Gardner discuss AI liability, confidentiality and how contractors can build safe, effective practices. 

As artificial intelligence (AI) grows more and more common in our everyday life, it’s important to look at it critically and understand how it can be used as a tool. Just like any other technology before it, AI has both upsides and downsides. To dive into some of the ethics and challenges behind integrating this technology, Jon Gardner of Owens Corning and Trent Cotney of Adams and Reese stopped by The Coffee Shops™ for a Read Listen Watch® (RLW) webinar. 

Trent, who is a leading lawyer in the roofing and construction industry, opened the conversation with context about where AI sits in terms of legal regulations, sharing, “The government is typically 10 to 15 years behind regulating technology, so while there are some guardrails based on case law and existing statutes, there isn’t a ton tailored specifically for AI.”  

This void in legislation has made AI kind of the wild west of technology, which can lead to some unique issues. Trent gave an example, explaining, “If a roofing contractor is using AI strictly as a chatbot, there isn't necessarily a need to disclose that. Where it becomes more of an issue is if you are using that AI to provide things like jobsite safety specifications or anything that a customer could potentially rely on.” The main difference between these two scenarios is whether the information is being used internally or for customers. This is because of deceptive and fraudulent trade practice statutes. Trent explained, “In almost every single state, there's a version of that statute which says that if you, as a contractor, are swindling a consumer by information or stuff that you put out, then you could, you know, potentially have liability. So, if you are using AI, it is important to disclose where that’s being used to avoid liability.”  

Another place where contractors need to be careful about AI is when it comes to confidential information. Jon dove into how he and his team at Owens Corning have navigated this one, sharing, “The impact can be significant, whether it's Owens Corning or any other business that provides proprietary and confidential information. If you put it in any old AI chat, it could turn out to be a problem because it's now in a publicly available resource center.” Trent added, “You need to recognize that you should not be submitting private customer data onto a site that is public. Think ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, anything like that. It's not confidential; anybody in the world could potentially get that. And, as a lawyer, I have subpoenaed ChatGPT history before. All of that is saved, even if you think you’ve deleted it.” 

What Owens Corning has done to avoid this issue is build guard rails. He explained, “At Owens Corning we have guardrails that are placed within the use of AI to ensure that no proprietary information is being placed in the public domain. That keeps our company healthy and risk-free.” 

These are just two examples of the complex challenges that AI has brought as it becomes more integrated in our lives. This is not to say AI cannot be helpful; it can make worlds of difference in things like customer follow-ups and automating lead processes. But it is a tool and like any other tool comes with upsides and downsides.  

Listen to the episode or Watch the recording to learn more about managing and integrating AI responsibly.