Overview
Learn how to responsibly use Microsoft Copilot generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
Who has access to Copilot?
Microsoft uses the name "Copilot" for a suite of AI tools.
- Copilot with Data Protection, web-based generative AI chatbot, is available to everyone at the University of Oregon.
- No other version of Copilot is broadly available at the UO.
- Copilot for Microsoft 365 — which deeply integrates generative AI to Microsoft applications such as Teams, Outlook, and Word — is currently being evaluated for deployment at UO.
Protect Your Data
- Make sure you're using the protected version of Copilot through the UO, not the consumer version. Instructions are available at Accessing Copilot with Data Protection.
- Learn how Copilot protects your data, and what kind of data are appropriate to enter into Copilot: Data protections in Copilot
Basic Guidelines for Using Generative AI
AI is not a replacement for your own creativity or judgment; it is a tool that can enhance and augment those innately human skills.
- Understand AI capabilities and limitations.
- Be aware that potential biases can impact results.
- Learn how to write prompts and verify output.
- Always evaluate output carefully and objectively to determine if it is complete, correct, and appropriate. Ask yourself:
- Is this content relevant and appropriate?
- How can I improve or refine it?
- How can I add my own voice or style to it?
Please Note: AI can be usefully wrong. Because it synthesizes ideas and information in novel ways, it is inherently weird — so it can propose unconventional ideas.
What if I see inappropriate, offensive, or sensitive information?
- Please report inappropriate or offensive content to Information Services.
- Please report sensitive information overshares to the Information Security Office.
- Please report any sensitive information you encounter that you don't think you should have access to.
- While Copilot for Microsoft 365 can access only the data that your account has access to, oversharing occasionally occurs. For example, a file with sensitive information may have been shared by someone in a way that allows broader access than intended or appropriate.
Microsoft’s Six AI Principles
Microsoft is committed to making sure AI systems are developed responsibly and in ways that warrant people’s trust. Microsoft’s Six AI Principles are part of their approach to create principled and actionable norms to ensure organizations develop and deploy AI responsibly.
Accountability
Microsoft AI systems include capabilities that support informed human oversight and control.
Transparency
- Microsoft provides information about the capabilities and limitations of our AI systems to support stakeholders in making informed choices about those systems.
- Microsoft AI systems are designed to inform people that they are interacting with an AI system or are using a system that generates or manipulates image, audio, or video content that could falsely appear to be authentic.
Fairness
- Microsoft AI systems are designed to provide a similar quality of service for identified demographic groups, including marginalized groups.
- Microsoft AI systems that allocate resources or opportunities in essential domains are designed to minimize disparities in outcomes for identified demographic groups, including marginalized groups.
- Microsoft AI systems that describe, depict, or otherwise represent people, cultures, or society are designed to minimize the potential for stereotyping, demeaning, or erasing identified demographic groups, including marginalized groups.
Reliability and Safety
- Microsoft evaluates the operational factors and ranges within which AI systems are expected to perform reliably and safely, remediates issues, and provides related information to customers.
- Microsoft AI systems are designed to minimize the time to remediation of predictable or known failures.
- Microsoft AI systems are subject to ongoing monitoring, feedback, and evaluation so that we can identify and review new uses, identify, and troubleshoot issues, manage and maintain the systems, and improve them over time.
Privacy and Security
- Microsoft AI systems are designed to protect privacy in accordance with the Microsoft Privacy Standard.
- Microsoft AI systems are designed to be secure in accordance with the Microsoft Security Policy.
Inclusiveness
- Microsoft AI systems are designed to be inclusive in accordance with the Microsoft Accessibility Standards.
Additional information
Unlike Copilot for Microsoft 365, the web-based version of Copilot has no access to organizational data in the Microsoft 365 Graph.