According to a memo obtained by Axios, Microsoft’s AI chatbot, Copilot, has been officially prohibited on all devices owned by the US Congress.
House Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor informed Congress personnel that the use of Copilot is now considered a risk due to the potential leakage of house data to non-approved cloud services.
While staff members can still use the Microsoft Copilot on their personal phones and laptops, it will be blocked on all Windows devices owned by the Congress.
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This is not the first time the Congress has imposed restrictions on AI language models. Almost a year ago, the use of ChatGPT, powered by OpenAI’s large language models, was strictly limited.
The free version of the chatbot was banned on house computers, but the paid version (ChatGPT Plus) was allowed for research and evaluation purposes due to its enhanced privacy controls.
In more recent news, the White House has revealed rules that federal agencies must adhere to when utilizing generative AI. These rules aim to ensure that any AI tool used by the government does not compromise the rights and safety of Americans.
Microsoft has acknowledged the need for higher security requirements for government users and has announced a roadmap of tools and services designed specifically for government use.
This includes an Azure OpenAI service for classified workloads and a new version of Microsoft 365’s Copilot assistant, all of which will feature enhanced security measures suitable for handling sensitive data.
According to Axios, Szpindor’s office will evaluate the government version of Copilot when it becomes available to determine if it can be used on house devices.
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