Changes to Microsoft Services Agreements; Limits use of AI Services (From September 30, 2023)

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https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/13/microsoft-limits-use-of-ai-services-in-upcoming-services-agreement-update/

Microsoft plans to update its Services Agreement on September 30, 2023.

Microsoft defines AI services as "services that are labeled or described by Microsoft as including, using, powered by, or being an Artificial Intelligence ("AI") system". This includes then, among others, Bing Chat, Windows Copilot and Microsoft Security Copilot, Azure AI platform, Teams Premium.

Microsoft lists five rules regarding AI Services in the section. The rules prohibit certain activity, explain the use of user content and define responsibilities.

Here is the full text of the first three rules:

i. Reverse Engineering. You may not use the AI services to discover any underlying components of the models, algorithms, and systems. For example, you may not try to determine and remove the weights of models.
ii. Extracting Data. Unless explicitly permitted, you may not use web scraping, web harvesting, or web data extraction methods to extract data from the AI services.
iii. Limits on use of data from the AI Services. You may not use the AI services, or data from the AI services, to create, train, or improve (directly or indirectly) any other AI service.

The first three rules limit or prohibit certain activity. Users of Microsoft AI Services may not attempt to reverse engineer the services to explore components or rulesets. Microsoft prohibits furthermore that users extract data from AI services and the use of data from Microsoft's AI Services to train other AI services.

Here is the text of the two remaining regulations.

iv. Use of Your Content. As part of providing the AI services, Microsoft will process and store your inputs to the service as well as output from the service, for purposes of monitoring for and preventing abusive or harmful uses or outputs of the service.
v. Third party claims. You are solely responsible for responding to any third-party claims regarding Your use of the AI services in compliance with applicable laws (including, but not limited to, copyright infringement or other claims relating to content output during Your use of the AI services).

The remaining two rules handle the use of user content and responsibility for third-party claims. Microsoft notes in the fourth entry that it will process and store user input and the output of its AI service to monitor and/or prevent "abusive or harmful uses or outputs.

Users of AI Services are also solely responsible regarding third-party claims, for instance regarding copyright claims.

Story via Microsoft limits use of AI Services in upcoming Services Agreement update - gHacks Tech News

We are updating the Microsoft Services Agreement, which applies to your use of Microsoft consumer online products and services. This page provides a summary of the most notable changes to the Microsoft Services Agreement.

To see all of the changes, please read the full Microsoft Services Agreement here.

1. In the header, we updated the publication date to July 30, 2023, and the effective date to September 30, 2023.
2. In the Your Privacy section, we expanded the definition of “Your Content” to include content that is generated by your use of our AI services.
3. In the Code of Conduct section, we added verbiage to govern the use of AI services.
4. In the Using the Services & Support section, we added a Moderation and Enforcement section to clarify and help users better understand these practices.
5. In the Service-Specific Terms section, we made the following additions and changes:
   • We added a reference to Dynamics 365 as trial sign-ups for this product can be enabled through Microsoft account authentication.
   • We changed the Bing Places section to clarify the user license provisions which will enable the product to meet its functional needs.
   • We created a new section called “Microsoft Storage” which encompasses both OneDrive and Outlook.com and reflects branding changes. This reflects the current status of storage quotas in that Outlook.com attachments now count against OneDrive storage quotas as well as Outlook.com storage quotas. A link to a page with more information is provided as well.
   • We clarified the Microsoft Rewards section to add additional verbiage in support of the global program rollout, add support for autoenrollment of Microsoft account users and other program changes, and verbiage to add additional clarity around the program.
   • We added a section on AI services to set out certain restrictions, use of Your Content and requirements associated with the use of the AI services.
6. In the Notices section, we made edits to update the notice status of certain licenses and patents.
7. Throughout the Terms, we made changes to improve clarity and to address grammar, typos, and other similar issues. We also updated naming and hyperlinks.

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