AI Weekly News Update: 02/23/2026

Table of Contents

• This Week

• The Executive Play (No consultant required)

• The Radar (Fast scan)

• Use-Case of the Week (Business function spotlight)

• The Bottom Line

This Week

A Judge Says AI Chats Are Not Private

What happened

• A federal judge ruled that using AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude for legal help is not private.

• A CEO’s 31 AI chat logs were seized by the FBI and used as evidence against him in court.

• The judge said typing into a standard AI bot is like talking loudly in a public place—you have no right to keep it secret.

Why it matters

• AI is a "Third Party": The law now sees AI companies as strangers listening to your conversation.

• Privilege is Dead (for some): If you use a standard AI account, you likely waive your attorney-client privilege.

• The "Free" Trap: Using the $20/month or free version of AI for sensitive work can legally expose your entire company.

Impact in numbers

• 31: Number of AI chats admitted as evidence.

• $150M: The value of the fraud case where this precedent was set.

Meeting line "A judge just ruled that standard AI chats can be used as evidence against us. We need to move everyone to Enterprise accounts immediately."

Who owns it + budget

• Owners: Legal + CISO (Security)

• Budget: Upgrade "Shadow AI" users to Enterprise licenses.

• Decision: Audit & Upgrade.

• Time horizon: Now (Legal precedent is active).

The Executive Play (No consultant required)

Action (30 min): Kill "Shadow AI" accounts to restore legal privilege.

How to do it (3 steps):

1. The "Privilege" Test: Ask Legal: "Do our current AI contracts guarantee zero data retention?" If the answer is "I think so," you are at risk.

2. The Sweep: Have IT scan for anyone logging into OpenAI, Anthropic, or Perplexity with a personal email (gmail/outlook) or a non-enterprise credit card.

3. The Mandate: Issue a policy today: "No company data in AI unless it is the Corporate Enterprise Portal. Personal accounts = Public disclosure."

Success signal (7 days):

• You have verified that your AI contract includes a "Zero Data Retention" clause (this is the legal shield).

The Radar (Fast scan)

1. AI model race: New models are launching weekly. Stop waiting for the "best" one and start building on the one that is fast and cheap enough for today.

2. AI is the new OS: Companies are moving from "chatting" with AI to building it into the background of workflows.

3. Security spike: Fake AI tools are rising. If an employee downloads a "free AI note-taker," they might be installing a wiretap.

4. China’s DeepSeek: Their models are proving that you don't need $100B to build smart AI. This is driving down the cost of intelligence for everyone.

Use-Case of the Week (Business function spotlight)

Function: Risk & Compliance Use-case: The "Shadow AI" Audit

Why do it: To stop your private data from becoming public evidence.

Effort: Low (1 hour setup).

Inputs required:

• IT logs of web traffic (look for chatgpt.com, claude.ai).

• Expense reports (look for $20/month charges).

The Workflow:

1. Scan: IT lists all employees accessing AI sites.

2. Cross-reference: Match against list of "Approved Enterprise Users."

3. Alert: Auto-email anyone on the "Unapproved" list: "We see you are using AI. To protect the company, please switch to this secure link..."

The Bottom Line

AI is powerful—but in the eyes of the court, it is a stranger. If you tell a stranger your secrets, you can't blame them when they tell the police. Buy the Enterprise plan.

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