Q: How can I access PatriotAI?
A: To explore the beta version of PatriotAI, visit https://patriotai.gmu.edu/chat/agents to try it out as George Mason prepares to debut this at scale in fall 2025.
Q: Could you please tell me more about what happens to the data that is entered into prompts?
A: Within PatriotAI, there are a few ways in which data may leave the George Mason environment:
- General Internet and Targeted Site Search Queries: Search queries within PatriotAI use Brave Search API, which is an independent enterprise-level search API that competes directly with Bing and other big tech search APIs. This tool is trusted by companies like Anthropic (creator of Claude) for their search API as well as other tech and AI industry leaders. Brave Search has comprehensive Privacy standards, touted independence, and security qualifications to uphold ethical and industry standards. Most importantly, Brave Search is private in that it does not collect, store, or transmit information about you, your devices, or your searches. Learn more at the links below:
- External LLM calls – Claude API calls: When using models that are not hosted within the Azure AI or Azure OpenAI environment, API calls will be sent externally. These API calls are encrypted both in transit and at rest. In accordance with the Anthropic commercial license terms, direct API inputs and outputs are not used to train future models. Claude also uses a set of principles to maximize the respect for personal privacy when generating responses. You can learn more at the links below:
Q: Is the prompt data stored per user, per department? Or is everyone’s prompt history treated the same and saved in a single data repository?
A: All interactions within PatriotAI are stored in a secure database within the George Mason Microsoft Azure Tenant. It is separated from the rest of the tenant within the nebulaONE® resource group. Access to this database needs to be explicitly given to users through the assignment of a specific Azure Role for that specific resource.
All prompt data is stored in a single database and isolated per user. Other attributes will be attached to database entries, such as chat access policies, trace logs, agent name, model, etc. These data attributes can be used to determine chargeback, reporting, and more.
Deleted chats will remain in the database, but will have information redacted. Deleted chats will not automatically delete the uploaded images/attachments that were part of the conversation, as these are stored in a separate storage container.
All in all, prompt data for the entire instance is stored in the same single data repository that will scale out as needed based on need within the environment. Individual and personally identifiable prompt data will remain in the tenant and will not leave the tenant as part of normal PatriotAI functions.
Q: Where can I get more information about PatriotAI?
A: PatriotAI is the inaugural component of our “Integrate AI” initiative, one of four key pillars in our broader vision of “George Mason University as an AI Innovation Nexus.” For complete details about this vision, please visit ai.gmu.edu.
For questions or to get help with PatriotAI, see the PatriotAI Service Page.
Q: Can users delete chats?
A: Yes, selecting “Delete” will remove the chat from the list of chats and make it irretrievable for the chat user. The data will persist in the Cosmos database.
Q: Who has access to our chat information?
A: Chat information can be accessed within your Cosmos database by Azure-enabled accounts with data read access roles to the database.