The Garnet AI Foundry is USC's dedicated resourec center for artificial intelligence,
designed to support staff in applying AI to enhance university operations, streamline
workflows and improve campus services.
We can’t see your chats. Our partnership with AI platforms like ChatGPT and Copilot
does not give the Division of Information Technology—or anyone else at the University
of South Carolina—access to your chat history.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT is a web-based artificial intelligence assistant that can generate text, summarize
information, brainstorm ideas, and help organize or plan projects. For staff, it serves
as a versatile tool to enhance communication, streamline workflows, and support creative
problem-solving. Understanding ChatGPT’s capabilities and limitations empowers teams
to use AI responsibly and effectively in advancing USC’s administrative, service,
and operational goals.
All conversations and files remain private within USC’s secure environment. Nothing
shared is used to train external AI models, ensuring data integrity and confidentiality
across university operations.
ChatGPT can retain context across sessions, helping you organize projects, track goals,
and build on previous work—streamlining communication, planning, and documentation.
Use ChatGPT to draft communications, summarize reports, develop materials, and find
creative solutions—improving efficiency while maintaining a high standard of service
and accuracy.
Explore AI tools for writing, data organization, and analysis in a secure environment
to strengthen digital fluency and support continuous professional learning.
Practice thoughtful, transparent engagement with AI tools—an essential skill for modern
workplace collaboration and innovation at USC.
Microsoft Copilot
Copilot
Microsoft Copilot, now available for $250/year for faculty and staff, brings artificial
intelligence to Microsoft tools, helping save time and streamline workflows.
Microsoft Copilot is an advanced version of Microsoft’s AI software, offering enhanced
AI-driven features and deeper integrations across Microsoft 365 like Word and Teams
to boost productivity and efficiency.
Microsoft Copilot enhances productivity with advanced AI features like predictive
analytics, improved data processing, and deeper integration across Microsoft 365 applications.
Designed for complex workflows, it streamlines operations, boosts collaboration and
drives efficiency for administrative, educational and research purposes.
Faculty and staff can quickly draft, summarize and organize content, reducing time
spent on manual tasks.
Copilot works seamlessly across Microsoft 365 applications, allowing faculty and staff
to transition smoothly between tools without disrupting their workflow.
Faculty and staff benefit from examples, advice, and tips on how to maximize Copilot’s
features through the university’s Copilot - Center of Excellence Team site.
Ethical AI Use for Staff
As artificial intelligence becomes an integral part of university operations, USC
encourages staff to engage with these tools thoughtfully, responsibly, and in alignment
with the university’s values. Ethical use of AI helps maintain trust, accuracy, and
integrity in all aspects of campus work.
Key points to consider:
Use AI transparently: Be clear when AI tools assist in drafting documents, communications, or reports.
Protect data and privacy: Never share confidential or sensitive university information with AI tools outside
USC’s secure environment.
Verify accuracy: Review and fact-check AI-generated content to ensure it reflects university standards
and reliable information.
Model integrity: Demonstrate responsible AI use in your daily work—balancing efficiency with ethical
judgment and accountability.
By approaching AI with care and integrity, staff can support innovation while upholding
USC’s commitment to professionalism, transparency, and ethical excellence. Learn about
the university's commitment to academic integrity in the age of artificial intelligence
here.
Additional Resources
Launched in 2019 at the University of South Carolina, the Artificial Intelligence Institute of USC (AIISC) drives interdisciplinary and translational research in artificial intelligence. It supports foundational and applied AI work spanning health, manufacturing, energy,
and social good — while building the next-generation AI workforce via courses, certificates/degrees,
and state-wide education and training.
The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) at University of South Carolina has a number of rersouces and programs on Generative
AI. Programs include a self-paced “Teaching with AI” course, webinars, a community of
practice (GenAI CoP), and a “GenAI Showcase” where educators share real-world implementations.
The initiative provides practical guidance, ethical usage principles, and ongoing
professional development to help educators thoughtfully leverage AI tools (like text,
image, and code generators) in pedagogy — while maintaining academic integrity and
promoting AI literacy.
DataCamp at the University of South Carolina gives USC faculty and staff free access to a
robust, browser-based learning platform with hundreds of on-demand courses. The platform
offers adaptive assessments, real-world projects and a sandbox environment to safely
explore data and AI tools — ideal for building practical experience before applying
AI in research or teaching.
Link to the Division of Information Technology Knowledge Base Article on ChatGPT and Copilot.
Link to the Division of Information Technology Knowledge Base Article on Requests for
Proposals)RFPs. This outlines the process for seeking new AI Tools not currently available
to faculty and staff.
Research Computing at USC — part of the university’s Division of Information Technology, RC offers faculty
and researchers access to high-performance computing (HPC), data storage, and advanced
computing infrastructure across disciplines.
Whether you’re in engineering, social sciences, humanities, or natural sciences, RC
supports advanced data analysis, visualization, large-scale computation, and secure
data management — enabling computational research beyond standard campus resources.
RC’s HPC clusters (like “Theia” for AI-focused workloads and “Hyperion” for large-scale
parallel jobs) plus shared storage via a centralized data hub help researchers run
compute-intensive tasks and manage research data efficiently and securely.
For projects involving sensitive or regulated data (e.g. health, export-controlled,
intellectual property), RC offers secure environments and workflows to meet compliance
and collaboration — giving researchers robust infrastructure without building it themselves.
Find upcoming artificial intelligence related workshps from our partners in the University Libraries.
ChatGPT is an AI system that generates natural, conversational responses. Unlike search
engines, which only retrieve links and documents from the web, ChatGPT generates original
text responses based on its training and (in many cases) integrated tools like web
search. ChatGPT can also combine reasoning, writing and data analysis in a single
conversation.
Yes. It’s especially useful for brainstorming, outlining, summarizing and refining
drafts. Whether you can use it for final submissions depends on your institution’s
policies. Always check your academic integrity guidelines.
USC encourages responsible use, such as citing when AI has meaningfully contributed
or leveraging an AI Reflection form, but using it to replace your own original thinking
without disclosure may violate policy.
Yes, ChatGPT can format citations and provide references, and users have the ability
to both upload files or specify their trusted public web sources to reference.
GPT-5’s knowledge cut-off is October 2024, however with web search, GPT-5 augments
responses by accessing the latest public information and research. Further, when searching
for the latest information, a user can specify which trusted sources (URLs) should
be prioritized for review and citation.
Yes - for brainstorming, structuring and polishing writing. It’s a powerful writing
assistant, but using it for full assignments without permission may breach academic
rules.
This is one of the best use cases with lots of tools already available. Check out
Study Mode (selected with the + symbol when starting a new chat). It can create practice
questions, quiz you, explain tricky concepts, and build customized study guides. Users
have the ability to upload files directly with Study Mode to focus in on specific
material. “QuizGPT” can be called in a chat to generate flashcards, as well!
Yes. It can explain advanced topics at multiple levels, from beginner-friendly analogies
to graduate-level detail. Try prompting, “Explain [topic] like I’m 12” or “Teach me
the most important 20% of this topic to help me understand the other 80%” Still, verify
important details against instructor materials or peer-reviewed sources.
Yes. it can walk through equations, show reasoning and debug code. Errors are still
possible, so double-check results against trusted methods or compilers.
Absolutely. You can practice dialogues, review grammar, translate, and build vocabulary.
Many learners use ChatGPT as a 24/7 conversation partner. Voice mode enables natural
conversation and translation in every major language.
Faculty use it to brainstorm lesson ideas, draft rubrics or generate practice exercises.
Outputs should be reviewed for accuracy and tailored to the course context.
Yes, faculty can generate customized educational content, adjusting for tone, complexity
and subject matter.
Key principles: transparency, fairness and accuracy. Disclose AI use to students,
avoid overreliance in grading and protect student data privacy.
Yes. It can role-play or generate scenarios that bring concepts to life, supporting
active and experiential learning. Asking ChatGPT to respond as-though they’re a particular
persona or with “XYZ objective” is enough to get started.
Yes. That’s why faculty should emphasize AI as a supplement, not a replacement, for
independent thinking and creativity.
USC’s Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) provides guidance, training, professional development opportunities and sample policies
for responsible AI use.
No. Conversations and data entered into ChatGPT Edu are not used to train or improve OpenAI’s models. The University of South Carolina’s ChatGPT
Edu environment comes with education-specific privacy and protection features, including:
Data protection by design: Student and faculty data remain under university control and are never sold or shared.
No model training: Unlike free or consumer versions, ChatGPT Edu does not use prompts or conversations
to train OpenAI’s systems.
Admin controls: USC administrators manage retention and access to conversations, with the ability
to delete records according to institutional policy.
Compliance: ChatGPT Edu supports legal frameworks such as FERPA, SOC 2 Type II, and GDPR, and
OpenAI signs a Student Data Privacy Agreement that designates them as a “school official”
under FERPA.
Data residency: Eligible institutions can choose regional storage to align with data sovereignty
requirements.
Disclose AI use where required.Verify AI-generated content.Avoid inputting confidential or sensitive data.
USC understands the concerns about sustainability around artificial intelligence and
doesn’t take those lightly. The university is committed to creating a more sustainable
future across campus and has taken efforts to make campus more energy efficient. We
currently have 27 sustainable buildings on campus and recently started the Garnet
Bites program to prevent food waste.
The university’s partnership with companies like OpenAI provides a leadership opportunity
to learn, evaluate and advocate for sustainability across campus. We’re committed
to pioneering not only AI innovation across the state but also renewable energy initiatives
to build a better tomorrow.
Need Help?
The IT Service Desk is your single point of contact for IT-related questions and support.
Give us a call at 803-777-1800 or submit a ticket through the IT Service Portal.
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