November 29 update: Microsoft responded to us, with clearer explanations than had already been indicated to others: “ These claims are false. Microsoft does not use customer data from Microsoft 365 business and consumer applications to train foundational large language models (LLMs). In some cases, customers may consent to the use of their data to meet specific needs, such as the development of personalized models, at the express request of certain professional customers. »
The company adds that the “ A setting in Microsoft 365 called “Connected Experiences” that some have been referring to recently has nothing to do with how Microsoft trains large, foundational language models “. It recalls how Connected Experiences work (which have existed since April 2019), which we explained in the first version of this article.
Original article from November 28: Microsoft has had a problem for several days. On November 24, the NixCraft account, followed by more than 374,000 subscribers, published a warning message on X:
« Microsoft Office, like many companies in recent months, has sneakily enabled an “opt-out” feature that grabs your Word and Excel documents to train its internal artificial intelligence systems. This feature is enabled by default and you must manually uncheck a box to disable it. If you are a writer who uses MS Word to write proprietary content (blog posts, novels, or any other work that you intend to copyright and/or sell), you will want to disable this function immediately. »
What function is this? Connected Experiences. However, these have existed for a long time. On its site, Microsoft lists these famous experiments. They contain everything that directly or indirectly relates to an online function within Office applications. Among these functions, we find any call to external data, dictation, the Writing Assistant (therefore spelling and grammatical correction), reading aloud, similarity checking, transcription of recordings or even co -creation of documents.
These features are available in the Windows and Mac versions of Office, as well as the online versions of the office suite.
Data analysis versus training
Quickly, the publication on X generated many outraged reactions, but not only that. Voices began to point out that Connected Experiences were not new, and that this use of data for LLM training purposes was not mentioned.
In its privacy statement, Microsoft indicates that the data may be used for analysis purposes, so that the called functions can have their effect. On the other hand, there is no indication that they are retrieved for large language models, unlike other services like Copilot or LinkedIn.
Microsoft responds, but…
To quell the debate, Microsoft first responded to NixCraft on November 25: “ In M365 applications, we do not use customer data to train LLMs. This setting only enables functions that require Internet access, such as co-authoring a document “. The company added the link listing Connected Experiences.
At the same time, she communicated to several Americans a message that she wanted to be just as clear: “ Microsoft does not use customer data from Microsoft 365 consumer and commercial applications to train large language models. Additionally, the Connected Services setting has nothing to do with how Microsoft trains large language models ».
Depending on the site, you can find more or less additional information. At How-To Geek, a spokesperson added: “ The Connected Services setting is an industry standard setting that enables features that require an Internet connection. Connected experiences play an important role in improving productivity by integrating your content with resources available on the web ».
But the company has also varied in its statements. To The Register, she said: “ In Microsoft 365 consumer and commercial applications, Microsoft does not use customer data to train large language models without their permission ».
Opt-in? Opt-out? Lack of clarity?
We have contacted Microsoft for clarification on this statement. As it stands, we don’t really know what the company meant. This could be a simple communication problem, or indeed an option. In this case, is this an opt-in or opt-out setting?
One can easily check what is enabled in Office. In Windows, from the File menu of one of the applications, you must go to the Account panel. From there, we click on Manage Settings. A window opens in which you can scroll through the proposed settings. A little further down we find the option linked to Connected Experiences, which “ analyze your content “. It is enabled by default.
Remember that you can also see all the confidentiality settings of the Microsoft account from this page (you must log in).
We will update this news when the company responds to us.
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