Microsoft has denied allegations that it uses Microsoft 365 apps (including Word, Excel and PowerPoint) to collect data to train the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) models.
This comes after a Tumblr blog post claiming Redmond used a “Connected Experiences” feature to scrape customers’ Word and Excel data for AI training propagated on social networks.
“Microsoft does not use customer data from Microsoft 365 consumer and commercial applications to train large language models. Additionally, the Connected Services setting has no relationship to how Microsoft trains large language models,” a Microsoft spokesperson told BleepingComputer on Monday.
The company also told BleepingComputer that this optional setting has been enabled by default since it was made available in April 2019.
“The Connected Experiences feature enables features like co-authoring, real-time grammar suggestions, and web resources,” BleepingComputer said.
“These features are enabled by default because they are features people naturally expect in a cloud-connected productivity tool. However, customers are still in control and can adjust their connected experience settings at any time.
As Microsoft explains in its support sitethe functionality is used to:
- Provide design recommendations, editing suggestions, or data insights based on Office content, through features like PowerPoint Designer or Translator,
- Or download online content templates, images, 3D models, videos and reference materials, including but not limited to Office or PowerPoint QuickStarter templates.
To enable or disable this feature, Microsoft 365 users must open their Office apps (like Word or Excel) and choose to enable or disable experiences that download online content or analyze their content under “Connected experiences” after accessing the file > Account Menu > Account Privacy > Manage Settings.
“The Connected Experiences setting enables cloud-based features designed to increase your productivity in Microsoft 365 apps, such as suggesting relevant information and images from the web, real-time co-authoring, and storage in the cloud, as well as tools like the editor in Word that provide spelling and grammar suggestions,” Microsoft also told BleepingComputer.
“Microsoft has been using AI in Microsoft 365 for years to improve productivity and creativity with features like Designer in PowerPoint, which helps create visually appealing slides, and Editor in Word, which provides grammar suggestions and writing. These features do not rely on generative AI. or LLMs, but instead use simpler machine learning algorithms.
Microsoft added that the setting was available since April 2019enterprise administrators with the ability to choose whether connected experiences are available to users in their organization using multiple policy settings designed to manage privacy controls for Microsoft 365 apps and office on Mac, iOSAnd Android devices.