Scoop: Congress bans staff use of Microsoft’s AI Copilot
- The U.S. House has banned the use of Microsoft Copilot, an AI-based chatbot, for congressional staffers due to security concerns about leaking House data to non-approved cloud services.
- This decision reflects the government’s attempt to navigate its internal use of AI while crafting regulations for the technology.
- The House previously restricted staffers’ use of ChatGPT, allowing limited use of the paid subscription version while banning the free version.
- Microsoft is planning to roll out a suite of government-oriented tools to address Congress’ concerns about security requirements for data.
- The House’s Chief Administrative Officer stated that the ban applies to the commercial version of Copilot, and they will evaluate the government version when it becomes available.
- Microsoft has released free and paid consumer versions of Copilot, as well as various paid options for businesses.
- Copilot works as a standalone chatbot for the Web and mobile devices, and the paid versions can also work directly within Office apps like Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
- The House’s concerns parallel those of businesses that have opted to block access to consumer chatbots like ChatGPT to prevent data leakage.
- Many businesses are considering or purchasing business versions of chatbots with guarantees that data won’t be used to train future models to mitigate the risk of data leakage.
