Safeguarding protected data, such as student records and operational information, is an important responsibility of all Metropolitan State University of Denver employees, especially considering the proliferation of artificial–intelligence models and technologies. With this in mind, Information Technology Services would like to announce that Microsoft Copilot is now available for all employees to ensure that the University’s data remains secure.
Protecting data
AI offers many potential benefits to people and businesses; however, ethical use, content ownership, implicit bias, human employment and other issues must be considered when applying such rapidly developing technologies to real-world scenarios.
AI technologies such as ChatGPT and Jasper use the information and requests they receive from users to update their responses, continually improving the accuracy and relevance of the functions they provide. However, if someone entered sensitive information into one of these systems, that information might never be removed and could potentially be pulled by someone who shouldn’t have it.
Benefits of Microsoft Copilot
Copilot addresses data-security concerns by not maintaining any store of data it receives from MSU Denver accounts. According to Microsoft:
“Microsoft Copilot is your everyday AI companion, providing AI-powered chat for the web. Whether researching industry insights, analyzing data or looking for inspiration, Copilot gives users access to better answers, greater efficiency and new ways to be creative.
“To help business and educational organizations protect corporate data, Copilot adds commercial data protection when eligible users sign in with their work accounts. Commercial data protection means user and organizational data are protected, prompts and responses are not saved, Microsoft has no eyes-on access and chat data isn’t used to train the underlying large language models.”
How to access and use Copilot
- Log in to https://copilot.microsoft.com/ with your MSU Denver NetID and password.
- Verify you are using the secured version of Copilot by checking directly above the text interface or the icon in the upper-right corner.
Copilot itself can provide assistance. Users can simply ask “How do I use Copilot?” or something similar once they have logged in.
For questions or feedback about Copilot in the MSU Denver environment, please visit the Microsoft Copilot service page on the ITS Support Portal.
Additional resources:
- https://copilot.microsoft.com/
- Overview of Copilot with data protection (Source: Microsoft)
- Microsoft Copilot adoption (Source: Microsoft)
Student employees interested in using Copilot for University work can submit a software request.
More on using AI at MSU Denver
The University established the Generative AI Taskforce to explore the myriad dimensions of the subject, and University leadership is developing additional guidance on data security and safe usage of generative AI tools in an administrative capacity. Please also watch for future Early Bird articles.