A top Senate administrator on Monday gave aides the green light to use three artificial intelligence chatbots for official work, a reflection of how widespread the use of the products has become in workplaces around the globe.
The chief information officer for the Senate sergeant-at-arms, who oversees the chamber’s computers as well as security, said in a one-page memo reviewed by The New York Times that aides could use Google’s Gemini chat, OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, which is already integrated into Senate platforms.
Copilot “can help with routine Senate work, including drafting and editing documents, summarizing information, preparing talking points and briefing material, and conducting research and analysis,” the memo said.
The document later added that “data shared with Copilot Chat stays within the secure Microsoft 365 Government environment and is protected by the same controls that safeguard other Senate data.”
It was unclear how widespread usage of the chatbots might become in the Senate — or how widespread it already is. Senate offices and committees often operate as their own domains, with senators and committee chairs dictating their own rules for staff to follow, and the chamber has not made its rules of the road for A.I. usage public.
That leaves open the question of how staffers who deal with sensitive or classified information might be asked to approach use of the products. Committee aides with security clearances who work with classified information are governed by strict protocols.
A spokesman for Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee did not immediately respond to an inquiry about policies in place for using A.I. chatbots for committee work. A spokeswoman for Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee declined to comment, citing security reasons.
Aides for the Senate sergeant-at-arms also did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether the office has provided committees with more specific guidance.
Staff aides in the House have been permitted to use Copilot, Gemini and ChatGPT, as well as Anthropic’s Claude, according to POPVOX Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization with a focus on modernizing Congress that said it had reviewed both chambers’ internal A.I. guidelines.
Under a House policy adopted in September 2024, the foundation reported, A.I. may generally be used for matters that do not involve sensitive information, are for internal consumption and will not be used in major decision-making. But a manager must approve the use of A.I. for more sophisticated things, such as generating constituent correspondence or drafting talking points for a member of Congress. And its use for generating deepfakes is prohibited, as is using a constituent’s personal information when performing casework.
The Senate policy also advises users not to enter personally identifiable information or physical security information into A.I. tools, according to POPVOX’s review.
Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times.
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