Microsoft Copilot, a generative artificial intelligence chat platform, is currently available to University of Iowa staff, faculty, and now students. Faculty and staff have been using Copilot since early January. It has now been made available to students as well, free of charge.
Copilot can help you with various tasks, such as writing, coding, data analysis, summarizing documents, creating images, and more. Copilot uses large language models such as GPT-4 and DALL-E 3 to generate high-quality content and suggestions based on your input and context. You can chat with Copilot about anything, such as asking questions, requesting content, getting feedback, or generating images. Copilot provides data and user protection, which means that your chat data is not saved, Microsoft has no eyes-on access to it, and your prompts and chat data aren't used to train the underlying models.
To start using Microsoft Copilot:
- Visit: https://copilot.microsoft.com/
- Note: Microsoft Copilot is also accessible via the sidebar using the Microsoft Edge browser
- Select "Sign in with a work or school account" under the Sign in icon in the upper right corner of the page
- Enter your HawkID and password
- The conversation is protected when a green shield appears in the upper right corner next to your username. It is critical to verify that the green shield is present for all conversations to ensure your data is protected.
- Copilot is designed to be your personal AI assistant and should help you in your work, not replace your own thinking and learning experiences.
Additional resources:
- Learn more tips, example prompts, and detailed instructions on how to access Copilot in this helpful support article.
- A generative AI Hub has detailed information about AI use at the University of Iowa and includes guidelines, use cases, a list of available tools, etc.
If you have questions about Microsoft Copilot, please reach out to ai-feedback@uiowa.edu