US Congressional staff will no longer be able to use Microsoft’s Copilot software on their government-issued devices Axios. The publication said it received a memo from House Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor informing congressional staff that the AI chatbot is now officially banned. Apparently, the Cybersecurity Office has deemed Copilot a risk “due to the threat of House data being leaked to cloud services not approved by House.” While there’s nothing stopping them from using Copilot on their phones and laptops, it will now be blocked on all Windows devices owned by Congress.
Almost a year ago, Congress also imposed a strict limit About using ChatGPT, powered by OpenAI’s big language models like Copilot. It banned staff from using the free version of the chatbot on House computers, but allowed them to continue using the paid (ChatGPT Plus) version for research and evaluation due to tighter privacy controls. Recently, the White House laid out the rules federal agencies must follow when it comes to generative artificial intelligence, which will ensure that any tools they use do not “compromise the rights and safety” of Americans.
Microsoft said Axios it recognizes that government users need higher security requirements. Last year he announced a roadmap of tools and services for government use, including the Azure OpenAI service for classified workloads and a new version of Microsoft 365’s Copilot assistant. The company said that all these tools and services will have a higher level of security that will make it more suitable for handling sensitive data. Szpindor’s office reports AxiosWhen the government version of Copilot becomes available, it will evaluate it before deciding whether it can be used on House devices.
