Use of Zoom AI Companion and Third Party Bots

Use of Third Party Bots

Zoom Meetings can contain sensitive information. As a University community, the security of your data and your colleagues data is a shared goal. Third-party bots or services may obtain private information during a Zoom meeting when appropriate security controls are not in place. For these reasons, use of unapproved AI assistants or tools in any UMN environment is prohibited.

The University’s Office of General Council (OGC) states, “Agreement to any software’s Terms and Conditions, including "click through" user agreements, are contracts and must be performed by the person with delegated authority to act on behalf of the University. Regents' policy requires that all such terms are submitted to OGC for review before acceptance to ensure the University is not entered into a legally binding contract with the vendor without adequate counsel.”

UMN has already blocked various bots from our UMN environment and will continue to add new bots as they become available.

Instead, UMN Information Security has approved the use of Zoom's AI Companion feature which you can read about below.
 

Zoom AI Companion

What is AI Companion?

Zoom's AI Companion is an opt-in suite of AI tools that enhance the in-meeting and post-meeting experience. The University has made the following AI Companion tools available:

It is important to note that Zoom does not use any of the data captured by the AI tools to train the Large Language Model. Data may be passed to third-party AI model providers for processing. Find more information about how Zoom's AI Companion handles data.

Discussion of protected health information (PHI) is prohibited in any use cases where AI Companion is present.

Acceptable Use and Academic Considerations

Due to the risk of inaccuracies, inability to understand tone, and the potential to lack additional context, AI tools should never be used to quote, paraphrase, or form assumptions based on discussed topics. Additionally, all summaries generated through the use of these AI tools should be reviewed for accuracy and edited (when applicable) prior to sharing.

Instructors who are interested in using Zoom AI Companion in their online or hybrid courses should include this as an expectation in their syllabus. AI summaries are not valid replacements for note-taking in courses. Instructors should also make it explicit to students that any AI summaries should not be entirely relied upon for accuracy of course content.

Refer to Zoom AI Companion: Guidance for Instructors for more information.

Good Practices for Utilizing AI Companion

  • Declare your intent to enable any features
  • If concern around the use of AI is expressed in the meeting, consider disabling the features
  • Pronoun accuracy is dependent on a users Pronouns as listed within their Zoom account, if a user has no pronouns listed the accuracy maybe be poor

Tool Specific Good Practices

Meeting Summary

  • Remind users that the meeting summary is not intended to be a full replacement for note taking
  • Be sure to review Meeting Summary transcripts for accuracy before sharing

Smart Recordings

  • Review the chaptering after your meeting recording has processed and edit for accuracy
  • Consider exporting content to Kaltura MediaSpace and take advantage of the chaptering capabilities

In-Meeting Questions

  • In-meeting questions are only capable of responding to content after the feature was enabled in meeting
  • Be specific with your prompts and questions for better accuracy