On first launch of Aalto AI Assistant, two agreements will appear.
Language models are the intelligence behind chat-based AI tools. They make the discussion feel like there was human chatting with you. ChatGPT and Aalto AI Assistant both rely on OpenAI’s GPT (general pre-trained transformation) language models.
1. Change the language model, in the top-left corner (see image below)
2. Choose a language model to chat with, by your needs:
GPT-4o (omni) is the default language model for Aalto AI Assistant and also thelatest flagship from OpenAI. It can analyse your image files: copy-paste the image into the window. GPT-4o supports multi-step tasks and costs only a quarter of GPT-4.
GPT-5:) has improved reasoning, making it better at understanding complex situations and providing logical answers..
Aalto Chatbot is trained with 65.000 aalto.fi pages. It is still in beta mode, so errors may take place.
The DALL-E-3 language model is for image creation. You can create simple images with it. Tip: First ask the AI Assistant to create a good prompt, e.g., with the GPT-4o language model, and then switch to the DALL-E language model to create the image."
Both GPT4o and GPT5 do reasoning, which is like a chain of thoughts. In GPT5 the reasoning can be seen, next to the answer by AI.
Choose private chat if you do not want to save the discussion in the system. This feature helps us to store less data. Please note: Private chat is available when data storing settings is turned “On” .
You can now upload and interact with one or more PDF files.
a) The simple method to add PDF files
If you want to process certain PDFs in more detail, proceed as follows:
B) Detailed Method: If needed, use a more detailed approach for Document chats by grouping your questions around selected documents.
The main reasons are safety and privacy. Both user agreements and digital firewalls protect your data when using the Aalto AI Assistant, compared with services like ChatGPT. The Aalto AI Assistant does not use your data to train language models.
In addition, we can incorporate more of our own data into the assistant. We started with content from Aalto.fi and are moving on to academic sources such as MyCourses.
| Feature | ChatGPT | Aalto AI Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Protects your data (does not train LLMs) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Reads uploaded files (PDF) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Analyses images, converts to text | ✅ | ✅ |
| Possibility to discuss Aalto's content and data |
❌ Never |
✅ Chat with Aalto.fi (now for staff) Chat with Student Guide (coming) Chat with MyCourses (coming) |
| The tool can be used by including Aalto's... | ||
| ... public content | ✅ | ✅ |
| ... internal content | ❌ | ✅ |
| ... confidential content | ❌ | ✅ |
| ... secret content | ❌ | ❌ |
You can use public, internal and confidential data while chatting Aalto AI Assistant. Secret content is not allowed.
If you are going to process personal data, please take into account Aalto's guidelines for data processing, especially the following checklist:
We want to offer you an AI assistant, for the following goals and benefits: time saving, quick access and extraction to valuable insights and facts, reducing manual workload – in general, data-driven work.
Aalto AI Assistant is offered for both Aalto personnel and students.
Go to: ai.aalto.fi
But remember:
* Personnel: If working from home, remember to use VPN first.
* Students: turn on MFA.
Easiest way to join the discussions for development is to join Daily AI community in Aalto Social.
Yes, Aalto AI Assistant does have GPT 5, and there are no costs for the users. But please follow your costs, keep it under 30 euros/month (personnel), 5 euros/month (students). GPT 5 is causing more waste of energy and water compared to GPT4
“Please shorten this <text> and translate it to language x”
“How to say <your text> in language x?”
“Help with Excel please, how to ..?”
“I am having lecture on <a topic>, please create question-answer pairs to …”
“Instead of googling, I’d need background information about <topic>, but from <choice> point of view”
No, it can not, yet. It will later on.
No, it can not, yet. It may some day.
Aalto AI Assistant is built on Azure OpenAI API services
Azure OpenAI data is in EU area
Although you log in with your Aalto account, your input is not stored anywhere
Your prompts (inputs) and completions (outputs), your embeddings, and your training data:
are NOT available to other customers
are NOT available to OpenAI
are NOT available to Aalto
are NOT used to improve OpenAI models
are NOT used to improve any Microsoft or 3rd party products or services
are NOT used for automatically improving Azure OpenAI models for your use in your resource (The models are stateless, unless you explicitly fine-tune models with your training data)
Your fine-tuned Azure OpenAI models are available exclusively for your use
The Azure OpenAI Service is fully controlled by Microsoft; Microsoft hosts the OpenAI models in Microsoft’s Azure environment
No. Do not assume that the answer given by any language models is accurate or reliable. Confirm all facts from reliable sources. Language models sometimes generate false information.
How to ensure research integrity and responsible conduct of research when using AI? How should we interpret the concepts such as reproducibility; bearing responsibility on the correctness of the results presented; respecting the authorship of others, and data protection?
Tips how to use AI in teaching
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