The use of Microsoft’s Copilot has been officially banned on government-issued devices used by U.S. Congressional staff, Axios reported. Key reasons behind this prohibition, as outlined in a memo from House Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor, are concerns around cybersecurity and threats of potential leakage of House data to non-approved cloud services. Despite this, staff members can still use Copilot on their personal phones and laptops.
This move follows last year’s restrictions on ChatGPT, another AI tool powered by OpenAI’s large language models like Copilot. Congress had prohibited the use of the chatbot’s free version but permitted the paid version due to its stronger privacy settings.
Recently, the White House disclosed regulations for federal agencies on using generative AI, ensuring the tools used do not pose a risk to American rights and safety.
Acknowledging the increased security needs of government users, Microsoft announced last year a series of tools designed specifically for such use, including an Azure OpenAI service and an upgraded version of Copilot in Microsoft 365. Szpindor’s office aims to review the government-use variant of Copilot before deciding on its applicability on House devices upon its release.
