Artificial Intelligence
UConn provides access to generative AI tools. Student, faculty, and staff, through their UConn Microsoft 365 account, can use Copilot Chat. Employees, including student workers, can purchase and use Copilot for Microsoft 365 and ChatGPT.
Students are encouraged to use Copilot Chat in their UConn Microsoft 365 account. Access it at copilot.microsoft.com or by going to email.uconn.edu and clicking “Microsoft 365 Apps.”
Make sure to sign in with your UConn credentials! Prompts, responses, and data in Copilot will not be used to train Copilot when you are signed in with your university Microsoft account.
Available Services
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
Cost | Free | $160/year via KFS | $236/year via KFS |
Availability | Students and employees* | Employees* | Employees* |
Connects seamlessly to Microsoft 365 | No | Yes | No |
Safe for institutional data when signed in with a university account | Yes | Yes | Yes |
*includes NetIDwork accounts (student employees)
Critical information about data security and privacy when using AI tools
It is crucial that you sign in with your university account even if you do not pay for extra features in Copilot. You must pay for an account through the university if you wish to use ChatGPT with university data.
UConn has an agreement with Microsoft (Copilot) and OpenAI (ChatGPT) that states your prompts, and the answers that you receive, will not be used to further train the AI tool. This means you may enter university data into them.
As always, practice extreme caution when handling private or sensitive data.
Once you are signed into Copilot, ensure that you see the green shield icon in the top-right corner confirming you are signed in:
Once you are signed into ChatGPT, ensure that you see “UConn” in the bottom-left corner confirming you are signed in:
Copilot Chat
Cost: Free
Availability: Students, staff, faculty, and student workers
Microsoft Copilot Chat is a large language model (LLM) that acts as a conversational AI assistant. It is accessible from the web at copilot.com and in the Copilot app on iOS and Android. Copilot Chat is a free service that users can sign into with their UConn email account. It is available to students, staff, and faculty.
Copilot Chat does not use data from your Microsoft 365 account (OneDrive, SharePoint, Outlook, etc.), though it does rely on information from your prompts, the web, as well as previous interactions you have had with it. Copilot Chat should be used for idea generation, information synthesis, and other simple tasks that can be made more efficient with artificial intelligence. When signed in with UConn credentials, prompts you enter, the information retrieved, and the responses generated remain protected and are not used to train the underlying AI models. Because of this agreement with Microsoft, it is safe and compliant to use it with institutional data.
Students, faculty, and staff can access Copilot Chat at copilot.com. They should ensure that they are signed in with their UConn email account before using it.
Outputs from AI should always be checked for accuracy and appropriateness. Despite the perceived reasoning and synthesis capabilities of modern AI, it is still common for mistakes to be made. Many mistakes may even look correct and sound confident (known as AI hallucination.)
Copilot for Microsoft 365
Cost: $160/year
Availability: Staff, faculty, and student workers
Copilot for Microsoft 365 is a large language model (LLM) that acts as a conversational AI assistant. It is accessible from the web at http://copilot.microsoft.com and in the Copilot app on iOS and Android. It also is available and interfaces in many of the Microsoft 365 applications such as Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams, and OneDrive. Copilot for Microsoft 365 is a paid service that staff, faculty, and student workers can sign into with their UConn email account.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 uses data from your prompts, the web, and from your previous interactions with it. It also uses data from your Microsoft 365 account. This means you can ask it questions about data stored in a Word file, a conversation you had through Outlook, or refer to information you have in a PowerPoint. You can also have it generate content influenced by files and data that you have in your Microsoft 365 account. You can summarize video meetings, generate email drafts, and draw inferences from information spanning multiple files. These interactions with Microsoft 365 work across multiple apps and the data processed is seamlessly accessible across these apps. In Copilot for Microsoft 365, the prompts you enter, the information retrieved, and the responses generated remain protected and are not used to train the underlying AI models. Because of this agreement with Microsoft, it is safe and compliant to use it with institutional data.
Employees who are interested in purchasing a license for Copilot for Microsoft 365 can fill out the request form here: https://software.uconn.edu/software/copilot-for-microsoft-365/
ChatGPT
Cost: $236/year
Availability: Staff, faculty, and student workers
ChatGPT is a large language model (LLM) developed by OpenAI that acts as a conversational AI assistant. It is accessible from the web at chatgpt.com and from the ChatGPT app on iOS and Android. ChatGPT is a paid service that staff, faculty, and student workers can sign into with their UConn email account.
ChatGPT uses data from your prompts, the web, and previous interactions to generate outputs. It does not connect to any other university services such as Microsoft 365, meaning it will not use data from places such as OneDrive, Outlook, or your local computer storage. However, users can upload individual files to be added to their queries. ChatGPT should be used for idea generation, information synthesis, and other tasks that can be made more efficient with artificial intelligence.
If you currently have a paid ChatGPT Plus or Team account with your UConn email address directly with OpenAI that you use for institutional activities, you will be required to transition to a university license. You will have the option to either export your existing data, or transfer it directly into your new UConn account with help from OpenAI Support. Emails with additional information and instructions on how to migrate your account have been sent to the existing account owners. Users who have a paid account with a non-“@uconn.edu” email address should contact support@openai.com for data migration and refund options.
Employees who are interested in purchasing a license for ChatGPT can fill out the request form here: https://software.uconn.edu/software/chatgpt/
Employees can find ChatGPT API purchasing information here: https://software.uconn.edu/software/openai-api/
AI research infrastructure
Researchers who need computing infrastructure for AI-related research can utilize the High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities hosted in Storrs and Farmington. To learn more about HPC, visit hpc.uconn.edu.