Boston College has acquired licenses for students, faculty, and staff, for select Gen AI tools with data protection. These licensed tools help ensure certain levels of data protection, and protection against security and intellectual property risks. When you use these tools with your 蜜桃传媒 credentials as described below, your information remains private per the terms of the licenses, and your chat prompts are not used to train the large language models.
AI Tools with data protection
Licensed by Boston College
蜜桃传媒 students, faculty, and staff have access to three generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) Tools with data protection:
- Microsoft Copilot Chatbot
- Google Gemini Chatbot
- Google NotebookLM
Data Protection for Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Google NotebookLM is available for current students, faculty (full time and part time), and staff (computer users) to engage and experiment with AI in a protected environment as instructed below.听NOTE:听Students under 18 years old will not have access to these tools with Data Protection due to restrictions by the vendors.
IMPORTANT: Data Security Considerations
鈥楥onfidential' and 'Strictly Confidential' data, as defined by the Boston College Data Security Policy, should not be used in any online AI tool (even if it has data protection), without University review. Agreements with Google and Microsoft MAY change in the future, and users should take notice of any changes in the Terms of Service from the vendors, or notices from Boston College about changes to the privacy of the GenAI tools.
To help protect your and Boston College鈥檚 interests, always consult with ITS and follow the University Technology Acquisition (bc.edu/gettech) process before using or acquiring new AI tools for University business. Remember that all use of AI tools must comply with applicable Boston College policies and procedures. Be sure to read the University Guidelines page听to help ensure compliant use.
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Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot is a Generative AI platform designed for individual use to generate text, images, and audio.
To get started with Copilot:
- Go to:听m365.cloud.microsoft/chat
- Click Sign in.
- Enter your username@bc.edu
- When prompted, select Work or school account.
- On the 蜜桃传媒 Single Sign On (SSO) login page, enter your 蜜桃传媒 Credentials (the username and password you use for Agora Portal) and complete 蜜桃传媒 2-Step Verification.
- Once logged in, you will see a shield in the upper right (next to the New chat button), indicating that your information is protected.
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Copilot FAQ
- ITS is providing access to the Microsoft Copilot chatbot available at: https://m365.cloud.microsoft/chat
- Copilot for Microsoft 365 is not included as it requires a separate per user/per month subscription fee.
- GitHub Copilot is not included as it requires a separate per user /per month subscription fee.
- Copilot in Windows is disabled by default at 蜜桃传媒 because currently it does not provide the same data protections as Microsoft Copilot on the web.
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- ITS and the Provost鈥檚 Office are providing Copilot as an opportunity to explore AI with a secure account.
- As part of a license agreement between ITS and Microsoft, 蜜桃传媒鈥檚 version of Microsoft Copilot has data protection. Specifically this means that 1) Prompts and responses aren't saved, 2) Microsoft has no eyes-on access to organizational data, and 3) Chat data isn't used to train the underlying large language models.
- While there are numerous AI platforms, by licensing Microsoft Copilot, ITS is able to provide eligible members of the 蜜桃传媒 community access to features that are normally only available via user subscription.
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- Microsoft Copilot is available as part of a license agreement with 蜜桃传媒, so your data is secure. You can upload content to it, and can be assured that your data is protected and will not be used by the AI to train its algorithm. However, confidential data should not be used in any AI tool (see data security question/answer below).
- Since Microsoft Copilot uses ChatGPT as its base technology, 蜜桃传媒 users are getting access to ChatGPT technology without having to pay separately for it.
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ITS and the Provost鈥檚 Office are exploring a range of options to suit the many needs of the 蜜桃传媒 community. Different groups, such as researchers and administrators, may require different AI tools, so other platforms will be made available as needs arise.
Microsoft does not allow Commercial Data Protection to be enabled for users under 18. Users under 18 will still be able to access Copilot, but without data protection. Therefore these users will not see the听green indicator that says "protected" in the top right-hand corner of the screen when logged into Copilot.
To get started with Gemini
- Go to:听gemini.google.com
- Sign into your 蜜桃传媒 Google account using your 蜜桃传媒 email & Secondary Password.
- Click Chat with Gemini.听
- Once you starting chatting, you'll notice a shield appears next to the prompt, which indicates your data is protected.
NotebookLM
NotebookLM is a research and writing assistant and note-taking tool that allows you to upload sources and create custom notebooks to interact with using Google鈥檚 Gemini AI models. Upload PDFs, websites, videos, audio files, Google Docs, and more, and NotebookLM will help you summarize, make connections between sources, and generate new ideas.
To get started with NotebookLM:
- Go to:听notebooklm.google.com
- Sign into your 蜜桃传媒 Google account using your 蜜桃传媒 email & Secondary Password.
Important Notes
- NotebookLM is NOT a Google Core Service, which means the service could change or be shutdown with very little notice.听
- Currently, 蜜桃传媒 users are limited to the standard version.
- NotebookLM Plus requires Gemini for Google Workspace licenses, and 蜜桃传媒 does not have a process for departments to purchase those licenses yet.
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Apple Intelligence is an artificial intelligence (AI) system built into Apple's iOS, iPadOS, and macOS operating systems; this feature is included with macOS Sequoia and iOS/iPadOS 18.
Apple Intelligence leverages both on-device and server-side processing, which Apple calls 鈥淧rivate Cloud Compute鈥� (PCC). Whether processing the data on-device or using PCC, Apple states that the data remains protected and private and is not used to train Apple鈥檚 models.
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Apple Intelligence FAQ
Currently, user data is protected similarly to those of Gemini and Copilot. However, it is important to note that Apple鈥檚 commitment to protect user data is governed by an agreement between you and Apple as dictated by their Terms of Service. Apple is not contractually obligated to protect 蜜桃传媒 data.
At this time, it does not. There is no chatbot interface for Apple Intelligence. ITS recommends using the Boston College Gemini or Copilot environments for most AI-related tasks. Apple Intelligence may be helpful for basic AI tasks such as text summarization and proofreading.
According to the Apple Intelligence Privacy Terms, 鈥�To provide a customized experience, Apple Intelligence uses information on your device including across your apps, like your upcoming calendar events and your frequently used apps. Apple Intelligence identifies the data necessary to provide to a generative model in order to best assist you, without requiring access to or storage of the data by Apple.鈥�
It鈥檚 important to note that while the model has access to this data, Apple Inc. does not. Read more at:
Using ChatGPT with Apple Intelligence to process 蜜桃传媒 data offers similar levels of data protection as with Apple Intelligence. However, if you configure your device to use your ChatGPT API key, your data may not be protected. You must update your ChatGPT account settings to protect your听data.
Please refer to OpenAI鈥檚 instructions to disable any model training:
Yes, to turn off Apple Intelligence, follow the instructions below:
iOS
To turn off Apple Intelligence, Go to Settings听 > Apple Intelligence & Siri and tap the button next to It.
macOS
To turn off Apple Intelligence, Select the Apple menu > System Settings, click Apple Intelligence & Siri, and then click the button next to Apple Intelligence.
To find out if a new AI tool or feature in an existing tool is safe to use for University work, please follow the听University Technology Acquisition (bc.edu/gettech) process.
AI Components of Existing Tools
As companies are adding AI features to their existing tools, you may find a tool you are using suddenly has a new AI component. These new AI features must be vetted to ensure they can be safely used with University data or accounts.听听
ChatGPT
While not licensed by 蜜桃传媒, we understand ChatGPT is widely used.听 If you opt to use it instead of the 蜜桃传媒-licensed options, please note the following:
- Free version of ChatGPT doesn't provide any data protection. Whatever you enter into ChatGPT is saved and used to train the larger model.
- Faculty and staff who want to use the paid version of ChatGPT should submit a Get Tech request.
- Even if you use the paid version of ChatGPT, you need to proactively change the default Settings to protect your data:
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For assistance accessing any of the GenAI tools, contact the Help Center at 617-552-HELP (4357) or help.center@bc.edu, or your local听Technology Consultant (faculty/staff).