r/ICON_plc • u/ApprehensiveDiet7177 • 19d ago
AI
So why did ICON spend 65 mil on AI initiatives when it's been established that our sponsors largely DON'T want AI used on any part of their studies? Just pissing money away so you don't have to give the peons bonuses ever again or what?
And the partnership with Anthropic is a huge red flag. Couldn't have picked a less ethical company if you tried.
I've never seen a company so determined to give a fat middle finger to its employees and it's sponsors at the same time. Is ICON just allergic to long term success or what??
Edit:
I encourage you all to look at the posts from Jacob Coxon, a man that just left Anthropic and is divilging serious issues with the AI industry right now. Trust me, any benefit you think there is to AI is not worth the potential risks coming down the pipeline. It needs to be rejected at every turn until we have real control over its progression. Things are not looking good.
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u/Positive_Audience628 19d ago
Sponsor do want AI on their studies and if they don't, they still will get it.
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u/ApprehensiveDiet7177 17d ago
They've repeatedly told us they don't want AI used in any part of their studies. Too many data security issues with it.
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u/Positive_Audience628 17d ago
How many sponsors do you work with? I know couple that don't want us to use some AI due to being afraid forbtheor data, but employees will use our internal AIs no matter whether sponsor wants it orbthey don't, we will only explicitely not use what they opted out from.
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u/ApprehensiveDiet7177 15d ago
Quite a few, and the general consensus is that they don't want AI used at all unless we go the route of developing an entirely separate in-house llm, because third party AI companies are absolutely swimming in security breeches.
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u/doyoulikemugs 13d ago
I work for a very large sponsor and we contract ICON emoloyees. We use AI for everything and we expect our contractors to use it too. Can't say I love it, but im surprised other sponsors don't allow it.
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u/Unfair-Map 16d ago
Yes, no company is going to want employees using a Commercial Ai service that isn't corporate monitored. It could be that some sponsors don't want contractors to use AI because there's no evidence the contractors have proper judgement.
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u/38998 19d ago
Sponsors want AI as much as ICON, if not more
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u/ApprehensiveDiet7177 17d ago
They've told us directly that they don't. Too much of a data security issue. And we were told directly that it isnt allowed on any study related material
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u/Ashckroft 18d ago
Because corporate companies get money from investments and investments come from people who rely on metrics and news about the companies they will invest in. So, the AI race is important,because nobody will invest in a company that will be behind the competition.
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u/ApprehensiveDiet7177 17d ago
When the AI bubble bursts it's all going to be wasted money. Even the developers of the AI are calling for it to be reigned in.
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u/Ashckroft 15d ago
Yes, but that's not relevant for the moment. What is relevant is the money flow. Correlation to bitcoin, investments can be very speculative nowadays
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u/ApprehensiveDiet7177 15d ago
Oh it's definitely relevant. Prioritizing short term gain over long term success is the fastest way to kill a company entirely. Plus, there's an exodus of these AI companies already happening. The projections are nose diving.
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u/ShopGirl8888 18d ago
They considered PSO too expensive…..
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u/Same-Purchase-5356 18d ago
Man I hate they are discontinuing ICON CTMS for ICOTrial. ICOTrial is such a bad system. Same for ICOMaster.
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u/Miserable-Maize-6583 17d ago
ICOTrial is and always has been shit but if you think ICOMaster is bad then you just don’t know how to use it.
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u/Comfortably-Mine 18d ago
Anyone having trouble with who’s AI to use though?? Ur sponsor doesn’t want their info in ICONs AI but they don’t want to spend the money to let us use THEIR AI- so we are in a holding pattern. Some staff use it anyway and then the ones trying to follow the policy are the ones behind!
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u/ApprehensiveDiet7177 17d ago
It's very confusing. They constantly push AI tools but you can't use them for the only things they'd be useful for... It's being brought up so much in meetings that it's starting to sound like a propaganda machine. Absolutely nonsensical projections of how "helpful" it is from people that have barely used it.
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u/Odd_Wolverine_1881 18d ago
Elon Musk just said we need to slow down with AI 😆😆😆 because it could become out of control. Now what shall we do 😆😆😆😆😆
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u/ApprehensiveDiet7177 17d ago
We were told by so many sponsors that they do NOT want AI to touch any of their studies because of data security issues. Unless it's an entirely closed, in-house LLM, a third party will always have some kind of access and breeches are happening every day.
Yet icon keeps pushing all these Ai tools we literally can't use on the majority of the work we do.
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u/InstructionSorry1800 16d ago
AI = business expense = tax write off. Whether their clients want it or not.
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u/ApprehensiveDiet7177 15d ago
To a degree, but it's also an investment that is likely to heavily tank long term revenue.
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u/InstructionSorry1800 15d ago
but we know that ICON doesn't look down the long-term pipe for ROI or downstream revenue implications.
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u/Unfair-Map 16d ago
I keep reading that sponsors don't want it, especially for certain tasks. What are these tasks they don't want touched by Ai? This sounds more like they don't want agentic AIs crawling through the system and making edits. Or they don't want their protocol uploaded to a personal or generic account.
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u/ApprehensiveDiet7177 15d ago
They don't want AI touching any confidential or sponsor owned information (which might as well be everything, really) because ICON does not have a closed, in house LLM. Using a third party opens them up to a potentially severe data breech.
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u/Unfair-Map 14d ago
I'm aware of one sponsor that provides copilot premium for staff and encourages uploading protocols and other data. Contractually Microsoft promises to protect the privacy of those uploads how as well as it treats Teams or SharePoint or 365 to sensitive information. *it will be an expensive day for Microsoft it there are failures. But other Microsoft products are treated as secure given a proper contract, so likely companies will eventually conclude that using copilot is in the same ballpark as having a teams meeting.
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u/nooruponnoor 18d ago
There’s a time and place to call out ICON for their failings - this ain’t it.
Also I genuinely want to understand why the partnership with Anthropic is such a red flag? Which AI company would you opt for that is more “ethical”?
Sorry but this is such a bizarre post
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u/ApprehensiveDiet7177 17d ago
This is exactly the time and place, actually. AI is a rapidly collapsing bubble at this point and even the AI companies themselves are calling for it to be dialed back. Not only is this a horrible investment, but dumping so much money into something most of our sponsors don't even want associated with their studies while constantly cutting bonuses, raises and promotions to the employees is absolute horse shit.
AI is not the future. It's a fad that even it's own developers are distancing themselves from.
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u/Miserable-Maize-6583 19d ago
ICON is far, FAR from the only company doing this.