What Shadow AI Actually Is
A working definition, the shapes it takes, and why it is better understood as information than as misconduct.
Foundations
Why it happens
Every instance says the task was hard enough that somebody went looking, and the approved route did not cover it.
6 notes
Why People Use Tools You Did Not Give Them
The reasons are consistent across organisations and none of them is defiance. Understanding them changes what the response should be.
The Risks, Sorted by How Real They Are
The published risk lists mix severe, moderate and theoretical. Sorting them is what makes a proportionate response possible.
What Actually Leaves, and Where It Goes
Tracing the path of a prompt in plain terms, because most policy is written without anybody having done it.
Why Blanket Bans Do Not Work
Prohibition does not end use; it ends visibility. What actually happens after a ban, and what to do instead.
What Is Different About AI Specifically
Organisations have handled unapproved software for decades. Four things about this case are genuinely new.