Nonprofits and AI: Managing Legal and Other Risks
by Holly E. Peterson, Esq., Counsel, Tenenbaum Law Group PLLC

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is ubiquitous. Even those most skeptical of AI almost certainly use AI as matter of routine, whether through the spell-check feature in Microsoft Word, the auto-correct feature in text messages, the auto-complete feature in various applications, web searches, closed-captioning, digital traffic maps, smart home devices, suggested responses on Gmail, Siri, and so forth. At this point in time, it is not realistic to imagine a business where AI is not used in some form. Even so, nonprofit organizations should carefully weigh the benefits of AI against legal and reputational risks. For example, a nonprofit may wish to authorize the use of AI to capture committee or working group notes, but, might there ever be times when such authorization is imprudent, for example, if a committee or working group is discussing sensitive, confidential, or proprietary information? Consider another example where a nonprofit uses AI to assist in the peer review of a journal article. This could be efficient and highly valuable, but it also could prompt legal, reputational, or scholarly concerns.