AI Tools

NotebookLM is a research and writing tool powered by Google Gemini. It’s designed to act like a “personalized research assistant,” helping you understand, organize, and generate insights from your own materials—such as documents, PDFs, notes, or transcripts.

Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered chatbot designed to improve productivity and enhance the way you interact with your Microsoft 365 data. The enterprise edition is available to all staff, faculty, and students at no additional cost under BU’s enterprise Microsoft license.

Sample prompt: “Copilot, draft an email to remind my team about the upcoming meeting about event planning at 2 pm today and include agenda topics.”

Data security:

• Once you are logged into your BU Microsoft account, data classified as confidential or below may be shared with Microsoft Copilot.
• Look for your BU email address and the words “Protected” on top of the Microsoft Copilot landing page to verify that you are using BU’s enterprise version.
• The data you share while using this tool will not be saved or used for training the Large Language Model (LLM).

Additional information may be found on BU Tech Web.

Google Gemini is an AI chatbot integrated with Google’s suite. It is compatible for work with text, images, and audio. With Gemini, users can ask questions, draft messages, summarize information, generate images, create code, find items in Gmail and Drive, and more. Gemini can be accessed through the application, website, or pop-up with a simple Google search.

Sample prompts:

• “Teach me a crash course about quantum physics.”
• “Help me craft a message to my team that is concise and eliminates any redundant information.”

Data security:

• Once you are logged into your BU Google account, data classified as confidential or below may be shared with Gemini.
• The data you share while using this tool will not be saved or used for training the Large Language Model (LLM).

Additional information may be found on BU Tech Web.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI-powered add-on integrated into Microsoft 365 applications, designed to enhance productivity by assisting users with intelligent suggestions and automations. Microsoft 365 Copilot can help users draft documents, generate data insights, create presentations, and streamline workflows. By analyzing user input and context, it provides tailored support that helps teams collaborate and optimize their tasks within Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

Sample prompt: “Copilot, help me create a visually appealing PowerPoint presentation on the benefits of using generative AI in the classroom, including key statistics and real-world examples.”

Data security:

• It operates within the secure environment of Microsoft 365, meaning your data is not used for training purposes and stays within the University’s control.
• This tool is approved for all data types up to restricted use data.

Cost: Microsoft 365 Copilot is available to faculty and staff only at a cost of approximately $360 per user per year. The cost of the license will be prorated at the time of request and is payable via Internal Service Request to IS&T—IT Help Center. To request a license, please submit a request.

Adobe Firefly is a tool to generate images from text description. Firefly integrates with the rest of the Adobe suite letting you design an initial image based on a prompt then open it in Photoshop to edit and refine it. Adobe is working to add audio, and video generation tools to firefly, available with premium feature access plans.

Sample prompt: “Create a cartoon Boston Terrier wearing glasses at a computer.”

Data security: Adobe Firefly does not use customer content to train its AI models; the models are trained on licensed content, such as Adobe Stock, and public domain content. Adobe does not claim ownership of images created with Firefly. The copyright belongs to you, the creator, subject to local laws. Adobe adds metadata to generated content for transparency and traceability, helping users track usage and comply with copyright laws.

Cost: Adobe Creative Cloud, which includes Firefly image generation credits, is available at no cost to students as well as many faculty, depending on your primary teaching affiliation. For those who need to pay, the cost is $75/year and information is available on our Adobe Creative Cloud webpage.

Zoom AI Companion enhances communication and collaboration within meetings. It provides real-time transcriptions, generates meeting summaries, identifies key action items, compiles meeting insights, and gives personal recommendations to improve future meetings.

Getting started: To use AI Companion, access your Zoom Website Settings and enable the appropriate features for your meetings.

Data security: Data is encrypted in-transit between meeting attendees, the Zoom cloud platform, and any 3rd party processors. Zoom AI Companion is not yet permitted for use in the HIPAA environment.

Additional information may be found on BU Tech Web.

OpenAI ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence conversational chatbot that allows users to ask questions, receive answers, get writing assistance, solve problems, and much more.

Sample prompts:

• “How can I make this sentence more clear and concise?”
• “Who has done epidemiological research on CTE? Where can I find academically peer-reviewed publications on this topic?”

Cost: ChatGPT has three subscription tiers, including a free version, and two group tiers. For more information see ChatGPT pricing.

Limitations: ChatGPT should not be used for confidential  or restricted use data; please refer to “Supported Tools with Data Protection,” above for tool options with data protection. The free version of ChatGPT provides information up to September 2021. Paid subscriptions offer access to more current information. Also, ChatGPT sometimes generates false outputs. For more information on limitations, visit Introducing ChatGPT.

Anthropic Claude is a family of AI models developed by Anthropic, an AI safety and research company. Claude is a generative AI chatbot developed by Anthropic. Claude is similar in functionality to other platforms like ChatGPT. It performs human tasks such as answering questions, helping with writing, generating ideas, and more.

Sample prompt: “I’m preparing for an important meeting next week and want to make a strong impression. Can you help me draft a concise yet persuasive presentation outline that covers our program’s key strengths, recent successes, and how our offerings meet the needs of students today? I would also appreciate a few tips on handling tough questions during the meeting.”

OpenAI DALL-E is an AI model from Open AI that generates images from text descriptions.

Sample prompt: “Create an arm chair in the shape of a brain.”

Canva AI is a collection of AI tools that help users create visual content. It provides writing assistance, design suggestions, background removers, image enhancements, text-to-image, smart resize, color palate generator, and a content planner.

Microsoft GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered coding assistant that provides suggestions as developers type. It’s designed to help developers write code faster and with less effort.