Microsoft Denies Office 365 Trains Its AI
Following concerns raised on social media and in its own support forums over the past few weeks, Microsoft wants to make things clear: the company does not use Microsoft 365 apps (formerly Microsoft Office) to train its artificial intelligence models, Copilot or others.
The confusion stems from the apps’ “connected experience” toggles, which are turned on by default and include features such as cloud-based fonts and downloadable document templates. Networking capabilities were added to the package long before the advent of generative artificial intelligence , so it’s a little unclear what caused the controversy, although it may have something to do with a recent support document from Microsoft that explains which related capabilities “analyze your content.”
In response to a popular post on X that claimed the feature “cleanses your Word and Excel documents to train its internal AI systems,” the official Microsoft 365 account responded: “In M365 Apps, we don’t use customer data to train LLMs. This setting only enables features that require Internet access, such as co-editing a document.”
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While vigilance in protecting your data is always advisable, the company assures that the analytics capabilities in Microsoft 365 simply search the Internet or ask Microsoft servers for help with your documents, with most of them acting as an advanced spell checker. Another Microsoft support document states that “common examples [of this experience] include translating text in a document, checking spelling in an email, or suggesting changes to a presentation design.” In other words, you need to give Microsoft permission to look at what you typed if it’s going to transcribe it or check your grammar. According to the company, this feature is not related to AI training.
In a statement to How-To Geek, a Microsoft spokesperson elaborated, calling the connected capabilities “setting the industry standard,” saying:
Microsoft does not use customer data from Microsoft 365 consumer and commercial apps to train large language models. Additionally, the Connected Services setting has no bearing on how Microsoft trains large language models.
Microsoft head of communications Frank Shaw also weighed in on the issue on Bluesky , saying the concerns were “untrue.”
The controversy comes on the heels of similar issues Adobe faced after updating its user terms and conditions, raising fears that the company would now harvest user-generated images for use in its AI image generator. While Microsoft has now officially stated that this particular concern is a misunderstanding, it’s understandable why users are concerned. Previously, other tech companies including X and Meta have included users in AI training by default, justifying concerns that other companies may take similar steps in the future.
How to Opt Out of Connected Features in Microsoft Office
If you still prefer that Microsoft systems can’t see what you type in Word or Excel, you’ll need to uncheck a few switches.
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Go to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options > Privacy Settings .
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Here you will see three Connected Experiences checkboxes. Uncheck anything you don’t need.
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If you uncheck “Impressions that parse your content”, Microsoft systems will not be able to access the content of your documents.
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If you clear the Experiences that load online content check box, Microsoft 365 won’t be able to search for content to load into your document, such as templates or images.
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Unchecking “All Connected Features” will disable both of the above options and will also prevent files from being stored online. Outlook will continue to work as normal.
If you have a document that is stored exclusively online, such as Word documents created using a work or school account, your control over online capabilities will be more limited . Here, go to File > About > Privacy Settings > Advanced Connectivity . If your organization allows it, you can clear this check box to turn off features such as smart search or inserting an image from the web.