Small smart things
about AI at work.
The Handshake Test
There is one rule that will keep you out of trouble with AI at work, and you can use it in under three seconds.
Before you paste anything into ChatGPT, Claude, or any other AI tool, ask yourself: Would I be comfortable if this text appeared on the company's public website tomorrow morning?
If the answer is no, do not paste it.
Call it the handshake test. A handshake means trust, and once you let go, the other party can do what they want. Public AI tools work the same way. According to research from Concentric AI, sensitive company data now makes up roughly 35 percent of what employees paste into ChatGPT, up from 11 percent just two years ago. That is a lot of trust handed over very casually.
The test catches almost everything that gets people fired: client lists, internal pricing, personnel matters, source code, draft strategy documents, complaint investigations. If any of it would be a problem on the company homepage, it would be a problem in a chatbot too.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.