As part of our institutional license with Microsoft, staff and students have access to Copilot Chat. This is different to Microsoft 365 Copilot which integrates with files, emails and other Microsoft programmes. Copilot Chat is a generative AI tool that creates responses based off web content. It can be used for lots of tasks such as searching ideas, session planning, summarising text, image generation, generating code and more! To access Copilot Chat you will be prompted to login with your University login details.

The benefit of using Copilot Chat, as opposed to other generative AI tools like the free version of ChatGPT, is the enterprise data protection agreement offered through Lancaster University’s licensing agreement. Microsoft states that “prompts and responses are protected by the same contractual terms and commitments widely trusted by our customers for their emails in Exchange and their files in SharePoint”. This means that your what you input is private, not used to train AI models and you are protected from security and copyright risks.

While the use of generative AI can be transformational for processes and tasks inside and outside of work, there are concerns around the ethical use of AI, its environmental impact and protecting personal data. There are also concerns around information security with the use of AI and staff and students are asked not to input personal data into AI systems such as email addresses, recordings of people or peoples names. For more information on Lancaster University’s AI usage guidance, visit the ASK page.