Microsoft Copilot has been banned for use by US House staff members, at least for now

According to a recent report from Axios, the utilization of Microsoft’s Copilot generative AI assistant by staff members in the US House of Representatives has been prohibited. The report reveals that Axios has obtained the updated guidelines sent to House staff regarding the use of Copilot.

According to the guidance provided by Catherine Szpindor, the Chief Administrative Officer of the US House, all Copilot features will be disabled and deleted from the Windows devices used by their staff members. In her statement, Szpindor stated:

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 current ban only applies to the commercial version of Copilot. Despite this, Microsoft has revealed its intention to release a government version of the AI chatbot by summer 2024. In a statement to Axios, a Microsoft spokesperson said:

We recognize that government users have higher security requirements for data.That’s why we announced a roadmap of Microsoft AI tools, like Copilot, that meet federal government security and compliance requirements that we intend to deliver later this year.

The US House’s Chief Administrative Officer announced that it will assess the security of Microsoft’s government version of Copilot upon its release, and will make a decision at that time regarding its suitability for use by US House staff members.

Microsoft has recently revealed a range of new features for Copilot, which will be available for Microsoft 365 business and education users. These additions will incorporate work content from Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint to enhance Copilot’s ability to provide users with technical assistance. The feature is expected to be released in April 2024.