US House of Reps tells staff: No Microsoft Copilot for you!
(2024/04/02)
- Reference: 1712010848
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/04/01/us_house_copilot_ban/
- Source link:
Staff working at the US House Of Representatives have been barred from using Microsoft's Copilot chatbot and AI productivity tools, pending the launch of a version tailored to the needs of government users.
According to documents [1]obtained by Axios, the chief administrative officer (CAO) for the House, Catherine Szpindor, handed down the order and told staff that Copilot is "unauthorized for House use," and that the service would be removed and blocked from all devices.
"The Microsoft Copilot application has been deemed by the Office of Cybersecurity to be a risk to users due to the threat of leaking House data to non-House approved cloud services," the documents read.
[2]
[3]Launched in late 2022, Copilot is a collection of free and paid AI services included in an increasing number of Microsoft applications and web services – including GitHub for code generation, Office 365 to automate common tasks, and Redmond's Bing search engine.
[4]
[5]
The House decision to ban Copilot shouldn't come as much of a surprise, as the AI chatbot is built atop the same models developed by OpenAI to power ChatGPT, and last year the House [6]restricted the use of that tool by staffers.
Fears over data privacy and security, particularly at the government level, have given rise to the concept of [7]sovereign AI – a nation's capacity to develop AI models using its own data and resources.
[8]OpenAI claims its software can clone your voice from 15 seconds of you talking
[9]Why Microsoft's Copilot will only kinda run locally on AI PCs for now
[10]Microsoft rolls out safety tools for Azure AI. Hint: More models
[11]HPE bakes LLMs into Aruba as AI inches closer to network takeover
Microsoft is [12]working on a government edition of Copilot apps tailored to higher security requirements aimed at assuaging these fears. The House CAO's office will evaluate the government edition of the suite when it becomes available later this year.
Szpindor's fears about data used by AI finding its way to the wrong hands are well-founded: in June 2023 Samsung reportedly [13]leaked its own secrets into ChatGPT on at least three occasions. That's because users' prompts are often used by AI developers to train future iterations of the model.
[14]
A month prior to Samsung's data debacle, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman [15]blamed a bug in an open source library for leaking chat histories. The snafu allowed some users to see snippets of others' conversations – not exactly the kind of thing you want to happen with classified documents. ®
Get our [16]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.axios.com/2024/03/29/congress-house-strict-ban-microsoft-copilot-staffers
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZguC27g61A0WmtQzJFPp2gAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/21/githubs_ai_code_assistant_copilot/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZguC27g61A0WmtQzJFPp2gAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZguC27g61A0WmtQzJFPp2gAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.axios.com/2023/06/26/congress-rules-staff-chatgpt
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/05/amd_hires_former_oak_ridge_chief/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/01/openai_voice_clone/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/31/microsoft_copilot_hardware/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/29/microsoft_azure_safety_tools/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/hpe_ai_network/
[12] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/requirements-licensing-gcc
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/06/samsung_reportedly_leaked_its_own/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZguC27g61A0WmtQzJFPp2gAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/23/openai_ceo_leak/
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
According to documents [1]obtained by Axios, the chief administrative officer (CAO) for the House, Catherine Szpindor, handed down the order and told staff that Copilot is "unauthorized for House use," and that the service would be removed and blocked from all devices.
"The Microsoft Copilot application has been deemed by the Office of Cybersecurity to be a risk to users due to the threat of leaking House data to non-House approved cloud services," the documents read.
[2]
[3]Launched in late 2022, Copilot is a collection of free and paid AI services included in an increasing number of Microsoft applications and web services – including GitHub for code generation, Office 365 to automate common tasks, and Redmond's Bing search engine.
[4]
[5]
The House decision to ban Copilot shouldn't come as much of a surprise, as the AI chatbot is built atop the same models developed by OpenAI to power ChatGPT, and last year the House [6]restricted the use of that tool by staffers.
Fears over data privacy and security, particularly at the government level, have given rise to the concept of [7]sovereign AI – a nation's capacity to develop AI models using its own data and resources.
[8]OpenAI claims its software can clone your voice from 15 seconds of you talking
[9]Why Microsoft's Copilot will only kinda run locally on AI PCs for now
[10]Microsoft rolls out safety tools for Azure AI. Hint: More models
[11]HPE bakes LLMs into Aruba as AI inches closer to network takeover
Microsoft is [12]working on a government edition of Copilot apps tailored to higher security requirements aimed at assuaging these fears. The House CAO's office will evaluate the government edition of the suite when it becomes available later this year.
Szpindor's fears about data used by AI finding its way to the wrong hands are well-founded: in June 2023 Samsung reportedly [13]leaked its own secrets into ChatGPT on at least three occasions. That's because users' prompts are often used by AI developers to train future iterations of the model.
[14]
A month prior to Samsung's data debacle, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman [15]blamed a bug in an open source library for leaking chat histories. The snafu allowed some users to see snippets of others' conversations – not exactly the kind of thing you want to happen with classified documents. ®
Get our [16]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.axios.com/2024/03/29/congress-house-strict-ban-microsoft-copilot-staffers
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZguC27g61A0WmtQzJFPp2gAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/21/githubs_ai_code_assistant_copilot/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZguC27g61A0WmtQzJFPp2gAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZguC27g61A0WmtQzJFPp2gAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.axios.com/2023/06/26/congress-rules-staff-chatgpt
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/05/amd_hires_former_oak_ridge_chief/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/01/openai_voice_clone/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/31/microsoft_copilot_hardware/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/29/microsoft_azure_safety_tools/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/hpe_ai_network/
[12] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/requirements-licensing-gcc
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/06/samsung_reportedly_leaked_its_own/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZguC27g61A0WmtQzJFPp2gAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/23/openai_ceo_leak/
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Seems sensible enough. Not just the risk of potentially leaking classified docs, but also inserting random nonsense into various other missives that aren't checked carefully before being fired off.
There are some "AI" things that are useful, like email spam filters that "learn" and "adapt" to identify likely spam even if it's something it's never encountered before. However, that's about the full extent of what I can think of for useful applications for AI for the average person. We still likely have a good decade plus before we have "AI" that actually does something useful. Something akin to the Star Trek computer, where you can have it process natural language requests that don't require very specific syntax and deal with ambiguity without making up a load of bollocks. Maybe Dell and the few other remaining PC OEMs out there should consider diversifying their businesses more. I know Dell owns EMC, so that's a good start. HP seems to be moving into Printer-as-a-Service and Ink-as-a-Service scams, so that's... something. The days of mass refreshes are over, and the smart CEO would have long ago planned accordingly, which I guess rules out pretty much every CEO at the major OEMs left standing. I suppose in some respects, the model used by Acer and Asus, of buying only enough materials to build X number of a specific model turns out to be the way to do it, even if it means your warranties aren't worth the paper they're printed on. How many people are going to go to the hassle of filing a small claims complaint?