Microsoft Copilot: Your Everyday AI Companion
What is Microsoft Copilot?
Microsoft Copilot leverages the power of AI to boost productivity, unlock creativity, and helps you understand information better with a simple chat experience.
Watch Microsoft Copilot's Superbowl Ad below!
Who Can Use It?
Microsoft AI Copilot is available to all ORU faculty and staff with the use of their ORU email account.
Exciting Features
- Intelligent Assistance: Copilot provides quick answers on a wide range of topics, summarizes articles or webpages,
and can even assist in creating lesson plans.
Language Support: Fluent in multiple languages; you can interact with Copilot in various languages. - Collaboration: Work alongside Copilot on writing projects, brainstorming sessions, and more.
- Innovative Solutions: Need a fresh perspective? Copilot offers creative solutions to challenges, sparking new ideas and insights.
- Safety and Privacy: Copilot adheres to industry-leading security standards to protect your data. However, under no circumstances should sensitive, confidential, or personally identifiable information be used when interacting with AI.
Helpful Tutorials
- Windows Tutorial Video
- Mac Tutorial Video
How to Write AI Prompts
- Be Clear and Specific: Clearly state what you want the AI to do or provide.
- Give Context: Give relevant context to help the AI understand the task or question.
- Use Natural Language: Use straightforward language as if communicating with a person.
- Include Examples: If applicable, provide examples or scenarios to clarify what you are asking.
- Test and Iterate: Test your prompts with the AI and adjust as needed.
- Avoid Bias Language: Check for any potential bias or ethically concerning language.
- Ask Direct Questions: Ask questions in a direct manner to elicit clear responses.
- Be Patient: Give the AI time to think and process the task or request.
- Review outputs: Review responses from the AI to ensure they meet your expectations.
Download The Art and Science of Promting Quick Guide here
Download The Do's and Don'ts of AI Prompting Quick Guide here
Quick Prompt Guides
Here are some ways you can use AI to enhance student learning, provide critical thinking, and contribute to a positive educational experience.
- "Provide constructive feedback for a student's reflection paper on Shakespeare's 'Hamlet', highlighting areas of insight and suggestions for deeper analysis."
- "Generate an outline for a research paper on the effects of social media on mental health, including potential hypotheses and methodologies."
- "Create a scenario for a role-play activity in an online class on business ethics, involving a dilemma between profit and sustainability."
- "Help me brainstorm potential research topics that explore the intersection of technology and mental health over the last decade."
- "Create a reference letter for Susie. Susie is graduating from ORU with a degree in Marketing, and is articulate, punctual, and a subject matter expert when it comes to SEO."
Limitations
- Potential Glitches: No AI system is perfect. Microsoft Copilot may occasionally produce error or glitches, potentially disrupting output.
- Bad Retrieval:
- Low precision: Not all chunks in the retrieved set are relevant.
- Hallucination + loss in the middle problems.
- Low recall not all relevant chunks are retrieved.
- Lacks enough context for model to synthesize an answer.
- The data provided is redundant or out of date.
- Bad Response Generation:
- Hallucinations were models make us an answer that isn't in context.
- Irrelevance were models make up an answer that doesn't answer the question.
- Toxicity/ Bias were models make us an answer that is harmful or offensive.
- Limited Understanding of User Intent: Copilot may misinterpret user prompts or provide unexpected results. Users should be clear and specific in their requests to minimize misunderstandings.
- Bias and Inaccuracies: Copilot’s responses are based on the data it was trained on, which may contain biases or inaccuracies. Users should critically evaluate the suggestions and verify them independently.
- Disruptions of Conversation Flow: Prompting Copilot with conflicting or multiple pieces of information in a single request can confuse the AI and lead to lower-quality responses. Abruptly interrupting or changing topics during a conversation may also disrupt Copilot’s writing process.
- Website Error Messages: Copilot’s inability to summarize a webpage could be due to various reasons:
- Webpage Structure: If the webpage has complex or unconventional formatting, Copilot may struggle to extract relevant information.
- Access Restrictions: Some websites may block Copilot’s access or limit its ability to retrieve content.
- Unsupported Browsers: Copilot primarily works with Microsoft Edge. If you’re using a different browser (such as Chrome), it may not be able to summarize pages from that browser.
Remember that Copilot is a powerful tool, but it’s essential to use it thoughtfully and complement it with your own expertise!
Need more assistance?
Email: helpdesk@oru.edu