Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,
Artificial intelligence has been evolving rapidly across the University, with growing interest from faculty, staff, and students in using generative AI tools for teaching, learning, research, and administrative work. In response to this demand, ISC is launching a pilot, PennChat, a secure University-hosted portal that brings together multiple leading Large Language Models, including Claude and ChatGPT, through a single, customizable interface.
The PennChat pilot will be available beginning July 7. FAQs are available here: PennChat Pilot FAQ.
We're inviting you to test PennChat firsthand and share your feedback as the university prepares for broader campus deployment. As we pilot this platform, you may encounter issues, and we encourage you to submit questions, report problems, and share feedback using the PennChat Pilot Feedback Form. Your input will help us improve the documentation and inform plans for the broader rollout.
Once fully launched, PennChat will be available to all Penn faculty, staff, and students. The platform also provides information about each model, including cost, capabilities, and data sensitivity level to help users make informed decisions about which tools best meet their needs.
PennChat: https://pennchat.upenn.edu
You must be connected to PennNet, AirPennNet, or the GlobalProtect VPN to access PennChat.
Key guidance for use:
The service is hosted within Penn's secure AWS environment to help protect your information. Data entered into PennChat will not be used to train AI models.
The University of Pennsylvania permits the use of PennChat for Low, Moderate, and most High Risk data, with the exception of Social Security numbers and credit card data. For more information, please see Penn's Data Risk Classification Policy.
As with all generative AI tools, outputs should be reviewed for accuracy, security, compliance, and appropriateness before use.
Please follow the University's approved data handling guidelines.
PennChat provides secure access to Claude models in advance of a Penn Enterprise Agreement by leveraging the protections of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Bedrock.
Here is a popular LinkedIn Learning training course on chat prompting.
Thank you for participating in the PennChat pilot. Your feedback will help shape this important new service before it is made broadly available to the Penn community.
Best regards,
Weitzman ITS
