Zoom AI Companion Fall 2024 pilot and FAQs

Overview

Zoom's AI Companion provides real-time assistance in Zoom meetings by offering features like meeting summaries, action item suggestions, and automated note-taking. The AI can answer questions and based on live transcription, making meetings more efficient and inclusive, but as a developing tool users should be aware that it will make errors that require human correction. 

The goal of this pilot is to learn, explore and better understand the benefits and risks associated with AI features to inform guidelines and practices. During the pilot, we will test the features, develop and expand guidelines, and accept feedback

In this article

 

Limitations / considerations when enabling Zoom AI Companion

Accuracy varies

The AI companion creates a summary and answers questions based on the transcript of the meeting, as well as the chat and documents shared in the meeting, depending on host settings. It is a new tool still in development, and will sometimes make incorrect inferences, assumptions or guesses as to meaning and content of the meeting. 

Hosts may choose to share AI generated summaries of meetings, but should not rely on it for any official record without human engagement to provide any needed corrections.

 

Automatic notification of AI use to users

Meeting participants are notified if AI has been enabled in meetings, but if the feature is turned off and then on again participants are NOT notified.

 

Be mindful of data privacy

Hosts are responsible for preventing AI tools from sharing sensitive or private information. Follow the Data Handling Procedures, and be aware of the data classification level of topics discussed in meetings.

Zoom AI Companion features are approved at Mount Holyoke College only for meetings where  Public  or  Internal  information will be discussed or shared. 

Zoom does not use meeting content to train Zoom AI Companion, but does save summary and recording information if enabled by the meeting host, and can email a summary post-meeting.
 

Follow College policies

Mount Holyoke community members who choose to enable AI Companion in Zoom should use it in compliance with existing LITS and College policies including the Honor Code,  Data Handling Procedures, Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Policy, and the Acceptable Use Policy.

 

Enabling Zoom AI Companion in your MHC Zoom account

How to enable Zoom AI Companion

  1. Log into Zoom and go to settings 
  2. Select AI Companion from the top navigation
  3. Select AI settings for meetings, recordings and whiteboard Zoom tools

 

Recommended default settings

There are many settings to review that control how Zoom AI operates in your account. LITS recommends minimizing automatic AI features, and instead manually enabling them once in a meeting.

SETTING NAME SELECTION NOTES
Automatically share summary with Only me A meeting host can then forward summaries to attendees after reviewing them.
Turn on AI Companion automatically when meetings start Off The AI Companion summary can be started manually in the meeting.
Auto-delete meeting summaries (after 30 days) On  
Who can ask questions to AI Companion All participants only from when they join the meeting Who can ask questions of the AI companion can also be controlled and changed in the meeting itself.

 

FAQs

How do I know if a meeting I am in is using Zoom AI companion? 

You will see a pop up message when you first join a meeting or when AI Companion summary is started by the host, and see the glowing yellow AI button at the top of your zoom window.

Zoom AI icon

 

Can I turn off the Zoom AI companion if I am not the meeting host?

No, but you can make a direct request to the meeting host that they be turned off. 

 

I am a student. Can I use Zoom AI Companion to record my class? 

No, not without explicit permission from the professor/instructor, or without a letter from Disability Services and signed by the faculty member, authorizing the recording as an accommodation. More information in the student handbook.


Should I use an AI companion summary if confidential or restricted information will be shared?

No, this would violate college policy. 

 

What should I do if my pronouns are not reflected accurately in questions or meeting summaries produced by Zoom AI Companion?

Verbally sharing your pronouns may correct the AI behavior, but it is not guaranteed.  If AI Companion usage leads to a human purposefully and repeatedly misgendering an individual, a report can be made to the Title IX office.

 

How accurate are the summaries of Zoom AI?

This tool is still developing and learning, there will be errors. 


Will the contents of my meetings be used to help train and improve Zoom AI Companion? 

No.


How can I give feedback to LITS about my experience with Zoom AI Companion? 

Fill out this feedback form.

 

How long do I have access to meeting summaries? 

In Zoom - 30 days (depending on settings)
Email - until you delete

 

I arrived to a meeting late. How can I use the AI Companion feature to catch up?

Click on AI Companion in your Zoom toolbar. If the meeting host has enabled it, you can select “Ask meeting questions”, then ask specific question or type “Catch me up”. 

 

What settings can be changed from within an active meeting (affecting that meeting) and which can only be adjusted from within your Zoom account (affecting future meetings)? 

From within a meeting that has already begun, the host may stop the summary and turn off the AI companion all together, and may also change who may directly interact with the AI companion to ask questions.

The host CANNOT change the automatic recipients of an email summary of the meeting once the meeting has started. That must be done in the host’s Zoom account settings in advance. 


How can I fix any errors made in the summary by the AI?

AI generated meeting summaries can be found under “Meeting Summary” in the meeting host’s zoom account for 30 days after creation. From there, hosts may edit the text of components of the summary as well as share or delete it. 
 

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Related Services / Offerings (4)

For systems that we manage, LITS assesses available AI features and follows a process to determine if we'll enable them for the campus community. This service page is a central place for community members to provide feedback about AI on campus and to request that new AI feature-sets be reviewed by LITS.
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