Ohio State is pushing the boundaries with AI by ensuring the tools we adopt are secure and powerful enough to equip students, faculty, researchers and staff to lead in a changing world. We are continually considering and testing new tools to enable Buckeyes to keep pace in this rapidly changing field.
Security and Institutional Data
The tools listed here are approved for university faculty and staff, but not for medical center employees due to different security requirements. Please consult medical center IT before using AI tools for any business purposes.
Faculty and staff should ensure they are logged in with their university credentials if they plan to enter above S1-classified data into an approved AI tool. Learn more about institutional data classifications as they relate to AI in the "Security and Privacy Statement on Artificial Intelligence".
Approved AI tools
Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Adobe Creative Cloud are available to Ohio State users and offer a variety of AI functions as described below. In addition, you can take advantage of AI features in existing tools once they have been approved. For more technical users, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Platform and Google Cloud Platform offer more options for using AI.
Ohio State does NOT have a contract with OpenAI for use of the ChatGPT chatbot; however, ChatGPT technology can be accessed through the Azure Open AI Service.
Adobe Tools
Adobe offers a range of AI-enhanced creative tools under the Adobe brand, and product names and capabilities may evolve over time. Adobe Express, Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Firefly are part of a connected ecosystem that supports design, media creation, and generative AI workflows. These tools are approved for the S3 (Private) data classification and below.
Tool | Students | Faculty and Staff | File Limit | Training | Institutional Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adobe Creative Cloud
| Request a license for professional use | NA | S3 = Private | ||
Adobe Express: Design social media content, flyers and videos using Firefly-powered AI tools and templates, with seamless social platform integration. | Log in online or download the app from Self Service on university-managed devices | NA | S3 = private | ||
NA | NA | ||||
Create, edit and manage PDFs and includes advanced features like accessibility checks.
| Not available | Log into Acrobat Pro online or download the app from Self Service on university-managed devices | NA | S4 = Restricted |
Google tools at Ohio State provide secure, AI-enhanced collaboration and productivity services for faculty, staff, and students (excluding medical center employees). Tools include access to Gemini™, NotebookLM™, Google Workspace apps and Google CoLaboratory™. These tools are approved for use S4 (Restricted) for S4 Research Data, Research Health Information and FERPA data. They are not approved for regulated data including (but not limited to) PCI, ITAR, CUI and HIPAA.
Tool | Students | Faculty and Staff | Limits | Training | Institutional Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Visit online; log in with the link in the upper right corner, using your with your university user name and password | Supports uploads of up to 1,500 pages per file or prompt. Overall app limitations are more nuanced. Google may at times have to cap the number of prompts and conversations you can have within a specific timeframe. | Visit Google Cloud Skills Boost or log in to the Administrative Resource Center | Approved for use with S4 Research Data, Research Health Information, and FERPA data. Not approved for regulated data including (but not limited to) PCI, ITAR, CUI and HIPAA. | ||
An AI research assistant that answers questions from your documents and generates summaries, questions, and audio overviews.
| Visit online; log in with the link in the upper right corner, using your with your university user name and password | Supports uploads of up to 1,500 pages per file or prompt. Google has published more detailed documentation of NotebookLM limits | Visit Google Cloud Skills Boost or log in to the Administrative Resource Center | Approved for use with S4 Research Data, Research Health Information, and FERPA data. Not approved for regulated data including (but not limited to) PCI, ITAR, CUI and HIPAA. | |
Google Workspace Docs™ Word processing Sheets™ Spreadsheets Slides™ Presentation Drive™ Collaborative sharing
| Visit online; log in with the link in the upper right corner, using your with your university username and password | Supports uploads of up to 1,500 pages per file or prompt | Visit Google Cloud Skills Boost or log in to the Administrative Resource Center | Approved for use with S4 Research Data, Research Health Information, and FERPA data. Not approved for regulated data including (but not limited to) PCI, ITAR, CUI and HIPAA. | |
Google CoLaboratory™ (CoLab) A cloud-based platform to write and run Python code in your browser—perfect for learning, prototyping, or AI research with no setup required.
| Visit online; log in with the link in the upper right corner, using your with your university username and password | Supports uploads of up to 1,500 pages per file or prompt | Visit Google Cloud Skills Boost or log in to the Administrative Resource Center | Approved for use with S4 Research Data, Research Health Information, and FERPA data. Not approved for regulated data including (but not limited to) PCI, ITAR, CUI and HIPAA. | |
Microsoft has multiple AI applications on the market that are branded as "Microsoft Copilot," and they have changed naming of these products multiple times. You can think of Microsoft 365 Copilot as a container holding the tools and services that are provided with a Microsoft account. These tools are approved for use S4 (Restricted) for S4 Research Data, Research Health Information, and FERPA data. They are not approved for regulated data including (but not limited to) PCI, ITAR, CUI, and HIPAA.
Tool | Students | Faculty and Staff | File Limit | Training | Institutional Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A platform that uploads and analyzes files, supports real-time collaboration with Copilot Pages and lets you create agents to automate tasks and processes.
| Sign in to Microsoft 365 and select “Try Copilot Chat” in the upper-right corner. | Log in for a maximum of 512 MB prompt per file | Log in to the Administrative Resource Center.
| Approved for use with S4 Research Data, Research Health Information, and FERPA data. Not approved for regulated data including (but not limited to) PCI, ITAR, CUI and HIPAA. | |
Microsoft 365 Copilot Full License interacts with emails and other Microsoft 365 applications to offer a more personalized experience and supports advanced use cases for teaching, learning, and productivity.
| Currently not available to students | Faculty and staff can purchase a license annually through their department by logging int the Administrative Resource Center (ARC) and following the instructions. Users with a license can sign in to Microsoft 365 and select the Copilot icon in the left-side menu. | Supports file uploads up to 512 MB, and users can upload up to 500 file | Log in to the Administrative Resource Center for training resources. Users can also attend meetings of Club Copilot, a Microsoft EDU community.
| Approved for use with S4 Research Data, Research Health Information, and FERPA data. Not approved for regulated data including (but not limited to) PCI, ITAR, CUI and HIPAA. |
Word Word processing Excel Spreadsheets PowerPoint Presentation OneDrive Collaborative sharing
| Sign in to Microsoft 365 and select “Try Copilot Chat” in the upper-right corner. | Log in for a maximum of 512 MB prompt per file | Log in to the Administrative Resource Center.
| Approved for use with S4 Research Data, Research Health Information, and FERPA data. Not approved for regulated data including (but not limited to) PCI, ITAR, CUI and HIPAA. | |
Cloud Computing Platforms
Ohio State AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides secure, scalable cost-effective computing, storage, and database services that faculty and staff can use for things like AI development, research projects, web application hosting, archival file storage and administrative Business Intelligence/analytics. For a detailed and up-to-date list of AWS's AI services and models, you can visit their AI Services page. AWS has introduced the Amazon Nova series, a new generation of foundation models optimized for various tasks, including content generation and video understanding. Ohio State has an additional vendor agreement to enable you to use additional models that are available through Amazon Bedrock - such as Claude 2 from Anthropic, Stable Diffusion from Stability AI, Jurassic-2 from AI21 Studio, and Amazon Titan. For a complete list of models, visit AWS’s AI Services page. Visit our service catalog to request an account.
Ohio State Azure
Ohio State Azure is a private and public cloud platform that provides a set of services that allow you to build, manage and deploy AI and traditional applications on a massive, global network using your favorite tools and frameworks. Azure Open AI Service is powered by a diverse set of models with different capabilities. You can access additional models using Azure AI Foundry, a unified AI application platform to help businesses leverage AI and generative AI technologies. Open service models include several products from DALL-E and Whisper. ChatGPT is also available via the Azure AI Open Service. Visit Microsoft’s site for more details about Azure AI Open Service Models available in Azure. To prepare to request a subscription, visit the Azure Checklist.
Ohio State GenAI Service
The GenAI service provides faculty and staff with secure, programmatic access to trusted generative AI models through Ohio State’s AI gateway (litellmproxy). This back-end service is designed for custom development—ideal for researchers and developers building their own chatbots, tools, or AI-enhanced applications. GenAI connects users to models available through Ohio State’s vendor agreements with AWS (Bedrock) and Azure OpenAI, as well as limited capacity through the Ohio Supercomputer Center for Ollama. There is no user interface or chat functionality; access is through API only, and no separate AWS or Azure account setup is required. To get started or request access, log in to our Administrative Resource Center. The process will require you to visit our service catalog and Workday using this job aid. You can also find more information about this service by
- The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) plays a significant role in supporting research related to AI and Machine Learning Technologies, and serves as a vital infrastructure and support system for Researchers in Ohio working on advancements in LLMs and related AI fields.
- The OTDI Cloud Services Group have partnered with the OSC to provide Ohio State Researches & Professors an inexpensive way to access their resources through managed Open-Source applications like OpenWebUI and LiteLLM.
Ohio State Google Cloud Platform
Google Cloud Platform offers secure, scalable, and cost-effective solutions tailored for university business. From research projects and web hosting to file storage and advanced analytics, GCP empowers innovation with cutting-edge tools. Several legal- and privacy-compliant third party models are accessible via GCP, including Vertex AI, GCP's unified machine learning platform that enables you to build, deploy, and scale ML models. It features a growing list of foundation models that you can test, deploy, and customize for use in your AI-based applications. GCP provides access to a variety of pre-trained AI models such as as Imagen, Gemini, and PaLM. For a complete, up-to-date list of GCP’s AI models and services, you can visit their GCP'S AI Models page.
More Approved Tools that Incorporate Generative AI
CarmenCanvas AI Tools
- The Discussion Summary option allows an instructor to request a summary of a particular discussion thread. Instructors may also ask specific questions about the thread's content. Currently, there is a limit of 25 summary generations per user per day. This feature is only visible to the instructor role. This tool is approved data classified as S3 (Private) or below.
- The Smart Search feature can be enabled as a feature option. Smart Search provides a page where users can enter keywords that return pages in the course that are directly or indirectly relevant. Instructors can then make Smart Search available to the entire course or leave it in the "hidden" area of the course navigation to limit access to instructional staff.
CarmenZoom AI Tools
- Zoom AI Companion: Zoom's AI digital assistant, delivers real-time capabilities to help users improve productivity and work together more effectively. This tool is approved data classified as S3 (Private) or below.
- Live Transcription: CarmenZoom provides speech-to-text transcription during meetings using AI and machine learning.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) - Einstein
SFMC is a marketing automation platform that is used for email marketing. content creation and contact management. Einstein uses AI to help you best evaluate and implement marketing activities within SFMC. This tool is approved data classified as S4 (Restricted) or below.
Additional Tools
Ohio State is currently evaluating additional tools that incorporate generative AI; this page will be updated as more tools are approved. Students should use GenAI tools only with the explicit permission of each instructor, in the ways allowed by that instructor. The tools listed here are approved for faculty and staff, but not for medical center employees due to different security requirements. Please consult medical center IT before using AI tools for any business purposes.
Have questions?
Have questions on how generative AI tools get approved or want to submit a tool for approval? Reach out to the Office of Technology and Digital Innovation at ai@osu.edu