- The United States House of Representatives has banned its staff from using Microsoft’s Copilot AI tool due to security concerns, citing potential vulnerabilities leading to data leaks.
- Microsoft plans to release a government version of Copilot this summer, tailored to meet higher security standards for government users.
- Despite the ban, Microsoft continues to enhance Copilot, introducing new features aimed at improving its accuracy in answering technical queries.
According to Axios, the United States House of Representatives has, for security reasons, prohibited its staff from using Microsoft’s Copilot generative AI assistance tool on work devices.
Catherine Szpindor, the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives, stated in guidance sent to staff that the Office of Cybersecurity believes the current commercial version of Microsoft Copilot has security vulnerabilities that could lead to House data being leaked to unauthorised cloud services. Therefore, all functionality of this program will be disabled and removed from staff’s Windows devices.
Also read: Microsoft Copilot AI will soon run locally on PCs
Also read: Microsoft Teams is getting smarter Copilot AI features
A Copilot version suitable for government work will be launched
However, it is noted that Microsoft plans to launch a Copilot version suitable for government work this summer. A Microsoft spokesperson stated that the company recognises the higher data security requirements of government users and will provide Microsoft AI tools that comply with federal government security and compliance standards, including Copilot.
The Office of the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives stated that they will evaluate the government version of Copilot after Microsoft releases it and will then decide whether the version meets security usage standards.
Microsoft recently announced a series of new features for Copilot
It is worth mentioning that Microsoft recently announced a series of new features for Copilot, planned to be launched to Microsoft 365 business and education users in April this year. One of the new features will utilise the work content users create in Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint to help Copilot answer technical questions more accurately.
