Evergy Asks Kansas Corporation Commission To Issue Protective Orders That Prohibit Disclosing Confidential Information To Unsecured Or Open AI Tools & Systems
August 16, 2026 – Evergy, the largest electric company in Kansas, has asked the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) to amend the protective order the agency uses in most regulatory proceedings to prohibit parties, their counsel, and their consultants and agents from unauthorized disclosure of confidential information through unsecured or open generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, platforms, systems, or similar technology (AI Tools). Evergy made the request by filing motions to amend protective orders in a number of current KCC regulatory proceedings involving the company.
Evergy argues that the KCC’s “standard Protective Order does not address the use of AI Tools in processing information supplied in the course of a proceeding.” Evergy further argues that to foreclose potential disclosure of confidential information through AI Tools, the KCC should amend the existing Protective Order to restrict the use of open AI Tools with regard to confidential information, consistent with what Evergy has proposed in its motions. Among other things, Evergy makes the following arguments against the use of unsecured or open AI tools, platforms, systems, or similar technology:
Generative artificial intelligence programs that supply natural language answers to user prompts, such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini, create novel risks to the security of confidential information. Prompting these AI Tools with confidential or business proprietary information creates a risk that the generative AI will “learn” from the prompt, which may result in the corporate owner of that AI Tool retaining access to the confidential information.
There is a lack of “reasonable expectation of confidentiality” in a party’s use of unsecured AI Tools because their “conversations with another publicly accessible AI platform” were “voluntarily disclosed.” Therefore, unsecured AI Tools challenge the “ability to protect confidential information and business proprietary information from access by unauthorized parties.”
The rapid proliferation of AI Tools has created substantial risk that confidential information in this proceeding may be inadvertently or improperly disclosed. Specifically, using unsecured or generative AI Tools to process, summarize, analyze, or draft confidential information, or to record or transcribe conversations in which confidential information is discussed, poses an irreversible disclosure risk. Once inputted into an open AI Tool, such information may be retained, used for AI model training, or otherwise distributed beyond the disclosing party’s control.
Evergy explains that it is amendable to the use of closed AI Tools, if certain certifications are provided. Evergy distinguishes unsecured or open AI Tools with closed AI Tools. The latter is described by Evergy as follows: “Closed AI Tools should not transmit, store, or retain any confidential information on servers or systems that are outside the receiving party’s exclusive control or use confidential information for the purpose of training, fine-tuning, or otherwise improving any model or algorithm.” Evergy explains that it “is amenable to parties’ use of closed AI Tools for processing of confidential information, provided the receiving party provides written certification to Evergy that describes the AI Tools that the receiving party is using and provides assurance that reasonable technical and organizational safeguards are in place to prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, or use of the confidential information processed by the closed AI Tool.”
