AI Use at Carleton: Legislation, Regulation and Data Protection
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the form of the latest Large Language Models (LLM) such as Copilot, ChatGPT, Perplexity.ai and DeepSeek, among others, have the potential to significantly change the way we learn, live and work.
You may also be aware of the concerns of AI use, which has the potential to impact our community’s privacy, risk our intellectual property and weaken our cybersecurity posture.
Governments are beginning to legislate in this rapidly evolving area. The Enhancing Digital Security and Trust Act, recently passed in Ontario, introduced or updated legal and regulatory requirements for the broader public sector for privacy protection, cybersecurity and the use of AI. As a provincially funded university, Carleton must follow this law.
While the AI regulations supporting this legislation have not yet been published, AI use at Carleton continues to fall under the Data Protection and Risk Management Policy.
About DPRAs
A Data Protection Risk Assessment (DPRA) evaluates the cybersecurity controls for cloud data, the protections for personally identifiable information (PII) and legal and insurance protections for Carleton.
This includes “free” services. AI is extremely resource intensive and vendors of LLMs profit from access to our data. Use in an academic setting may violate the LLM’s terms of use, as most “free” software is free for home use only. Using unapproved AI puts Carleton at legal,financial and reputational risk.
So, what AI is safe to use today? All Carleton staff and faculty members have access to Microsoft Copilot built into their Edge browsers, or by visiting copilot.microsoft.com. You just need to log into your browser with your MC1 credentials. Copilot includes contractual protections and has undergone a full assessment. In Copilot, the green shield means your data is protected!
We hope this helps you explore this exciting new technology in a way that protects the Carleton community and the university’s information.