Microsoft Copilot blocked for US Congressional devices

According to an Axios report, US Congressional staffers are no longer allowed to use Microsoft Copilot on their government devices.

Here's What We Know

The news comes after the House of Representatives' Chief Administrative Officer, Katherine Spindor, expressed outrage over the possible risk of leaking House data to unknown cloud services.

While congressional staffers can continue to use Copilot on their own devices, it will be blocked on all Windows devices owned by Congress. This action was taken due to a security risk recognised by the Office of Cybersecurity and is in line with recent White House guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence in government agencies.

Almost a year ago, Congress also banned the free version of ChatGPT developed by OpenAI from its computers, but allowed the use of the paid version ChatGPT Plus under the condition of strict privacy controls.

Microsoft recognises the need for increased security requirements for government users and has announced the development of special tools and services, such as the Azure OpenAI service for classified workloads and a new version of the Microsoft 365 assistant Copilot, which have a higher level of security.

According to Axios, Catherine Spindor's office will evaluate the government version of Copilot to determine if it can be used on House devices in the future.

Source: Engadget