IT Support

Microsoft Copilot available for students at UiS

The IT department has enabled Microsoft Copilot for all students at UiS, see Signing in to Microsoft Copilot for more information on how to get started.

For questions about login and technical support, the IT department can be contacted on it-hjelp@uis.no

For questions and guidance on using Copilot, more information can be found here: All about the exam

How does Copilot work?

Copilot is a language model that integrates with Microsoft's search engine, Bing. The search engine is supplemented by artificial intelligence (GPT-4) from the company OpenAI, which is the same technology as the chatbot ChatGPT. Copilot uses the information you enter and collates it with information found on the open web. Copilot does not have access to information on your computer, but it may have access to tabs in an open browser or PDF document that you make available.

What should I consider when using Copilot?

When using Copilot, there are several things to consider, including:

• You must be critical of the answers the language model gives you. You should expect the language model to generate text with incorrect information but presented authentically.
• You must assume that the references the language model uses may be incorrect.
• You must do a manual check of the answer the language model gives you, before relaying or using the answer it has given you in another context.
• Remember that you may not get the same answer twice – don't use the language model for tasks that require integrity.
• When using and forwarding responses, text generated by Copilot must be marked with the help of AI.
• Do not use the language model to process personal data about yourself or others.
• Do not use the language model to handle student or staff cases.

Is it safe to use Copilot?

Yes, it is. The IT department has evaluated the service and concluded that the service is safe to use for information classified at internal level (yellow). The solution is not recommended for confidential or strictly confidential information. It is you as a user who must assess for yourself what level of classification the information you enter is at.

Copilot vs. ChatGPT – What's the Difference?

Copilot is connected to the Internet, and thus can provide up-to-date information that regular ChatGPT does not have access to. However, that is not the only difference, and there may be several cases where ChatGPT can perform better, even if it only has information from the Internet until 2021. We're going to look at some of the similarities and differences between the two. Here we only consider those that are freely available to employees and students at UiS, Copilot is available in Enterprise edition on all UiS computers, and ChatGPT is freely available to everyone in the "3.5" edition.

Copilot is based on ChatGPT-4, but is provided by Microsoft, and has some fundamental differences from a standard ChatGPT from OpenAI.

In testing, ChatGPT has proven to be better at creating analytical and detailed answers, while Copilot makes shorter summaries. ChatGPT also accepts longer "conversations" as it is unlimited in the number of questions/answers, while Copilot has a limit on the provider's part of 30 questions per conversation, and 300 conversations per day.

Copilot is also extended with the ability to analyze and generate images, this is only available in the paid edition of ChatGPT (ChatGPT Plus).

Copilot is the best choice if you need up-to-date information, as it has access to the Internet and can generate responses to news and ongoing events. Copilot also generates footnotes that link back to sources, so that you can cite the sources you have used and validate these, ChatGPT does not in a free version. Copilot uses ChatGPT-4, while the free edition of ChatGPT still uses ChatGPT-3.5, so if you want to access the latest release for free, Copilot is the right choice.

Since Copilot also has access to the Internet, it will be able to provide references to sources that contain incorrect information to a slightly greater extent than ChatGPT, but since you also get source references, this can be checked and verified.

Copilot is free, but you may experience advertising from time to time, which you don't have to do with ChatGPT. To access ChatGPT-4 via OpenAI, you need to subscribe to a personal subscription to "ChatGPT Plus".

Both Copilot and ChatGPT have clear privacy rules, but neither can be used for sensitive data, e.g. as both have functionality that allows data to be manually controlled by the provider. Green data can be used freely in dialogue with chatbots in general, while yellow data and above should be anonymised before use in a chatbot. Copilot as it is installed on UiS machines is set up so that data does not leave the UiS domain at Microsoft, and can thus be considered somewhat safer, but none of them are currently approved for use with sensitive data.

Helpful  links:

Microsoft Copilot vs ChatGPT; which one is better for students?

Microsoft Copilot vs ChatGPT: Which one is best for you?

ChatGPT vs. Microsoft Copilot: What's the difference?

Change of standard sharing rights

Today, the standard sharing setting in Sharepoint/Onedrive/Teams is set to "People in Universitetet i Stavanger". This applies to files that are shared with the "share with" function. A consequence is that when you share a file, everyone who knows the sharing link will have editing access; no distinction is made between staff and students.
There is a risk that a link will be copied and that too many people will have access.

Standard sharing settings will therefore be changed from 8.4.24. Previous permissions will not be affected by the change