University of Oslo builds GPT-based chat for higher education in 9 weeks with Azure

At many universities, the rapid rise of generative AI tools has fueled concerns about security, privacy, and meeting strict international compliance regulations. With its emphasis on promoting groundbreaking research and helping both students and faculty excel with cutting-edge technology, the University of Oslo (UiO) felt this pressure too. 

“UiO students are highly driven, and we’re focused on preparing them for the future through innovation in learning,” says Omid Mirmotahari, Associate Professor, Department of Informatics at UiO. “But suddenly, we went from no access to AI to everybody can access it.”

“We needed a way to encourage productive AI experiences for our users while safeguarding research, data, and the privacy of students and staff,” says Pål Fugelli, Head of App Development at UiO.

Prioritizing security, privacy, and compliance

UiO decided to create its own solution, prioritizing Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Because UiO was already using Microsoft Azure for its technology infrastructure, trust in the platform was high. Dagfinn Bergsager, Assistant Director, Division for Research, Dissemination, and Education at UiO, explains, “We were confident that with Azure we could swiftly build a secure, custom solution for AI-assisted education and research purposes.”

The creation of GPT UiO began with a design sprint. “We wanted to account for how it might be used for short- and long-term research, writing, generating ideas, and preparing lectures,” says Katrine Nordeide Kuiper, Senior Engineer, Design and User Experience at UiO. “In addition to GDPR, it was important for us to consider everything from individual user privacy and personalization to plagiarism.”

Using a combination of Azure OpenAI Service, local storage, and on-premises hosting of the web app, the team built a compliant AI environment to safely create models and experiment. “This gave us a lot of freedom to customize,” says Fugelli. Critical for UiO was that prompts, completions, embeddings, and training data are not available to other people or used to improve models or any third-party products or services.

Lars Lauvstad Sættem, Senior Engineer App Development at UiO, adds, “Azure OpenAI Service makes it easy to switch between models and accommodate the needs associated with different user scenarios.” It also supports the team’s ability to make specific settings in the Azure portal. “Using Azure OpenAI Service, we easily set specific attributes for our tenants in Azure, such as location and data handling,” explains Lauvstad Sættem. He notes that the Azure OpenAI interface simplified content filter customization, which is important for higher education.

In addition to supporting UiO model creation, testing, and deployment, Azure OpenAI Service bolstered the seamless integration of machine learning models into the unique GPT UiO service. “It helps us manage the load between multiple datacenters in Europe while maintaining high levels of privacy,” says Lauvstad Sættem. 

UiO took its commitment to privacy a step further with the decision to secure its data on-premises, using its own Postgres database platform. To support deployment, it turned to Azure AI Foundry. “We used Azure AI Foundry to set up deployments in different regions,” says Fugelli. “It was easy to choose regions that suited us and configure the content filter.”

“We built and launched GPT UiO in just nine weeks,” says Bergsager.

Inspiring curiosity and opportunity

UiO students are now conducting research, exploring ideas, and gaining support through ongoing conversations with the GPT. They are also creating, saving, and sharing custom instructions in the tool. Educators are using it to inspire and enhance research and lectures. “GPT UiO is helping students and employees be more efficient, but perhaps more importantly, with the ease of diving deeper into subjects, it’s fueling curiosity,” says Mirmotahari. “That’s what education should do.”

Because GPT UiO aligns with data classification requirements used by higher education institutions across Europe, Bergsager says it’s also opened the unexpected opportunity for UiO to become an ISV. “Numerous universities are using it, appreciating that we did the heavy lifting for them,” he says.

“With Microsoft and Azure OpenAI Service, we moved quickly from ideation to production to now having many thousands of daily users,” concludes Nordeide Kuiper. “With this foundation to create customized AI solutions, we’re excited about enhancing future learning experiences.”