Coming in June: Google Gemini & Zoom AI for Faculty & Staff

June 3, 2025

Dear Berkeley faculty and staff,

To address security and privacy issues across the Berkeley campus related to the use of generative AI, we write to announce two tools that will become available to all Berkeley faculty and staff starting in June: 

  • Zoom AI Companion provides discussion summaries and other meeting support features to meeting hosts and/or participants. Critically, these features require the host’s permission. See below for details.
  • Google Gemini App is a mobile and web application that allows for generative chat using Google's AI, similar to Microsoft Copilot. Google Gemini App is included in our existing agreement with Google and, unlike consumer tools, is subject to the same data protections as other tools in our campus Google Workspace.  

Both tools include data protection through UC Berkeley’s agreements with Google and Zoom: your data will not be used to train AI models and will not be included in other public AI query results when you use these tools while logged in with your Berkeley account. During the pilot phase, the tools went through privacy, security, and accessibility reviews. Preparing to provide these tools has been a collaborative effort with several campus partners, including the Office of Ethics, Risk and Compliance Services; People & Culture; Research, Teaching and Learning; the Information Security Office; the Provost’s Advisory Council on AI; and the Academic Senate.  

Artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, has wide-ranging implications for our society that members of the Berkeley community are engaged in questioning, challenging, and shaping. Berkeley IT provision of these tools aims to meet campus needs for new technologies while working to address various risks and issues, and ensure that the use of these tools aligns with the university’s values and core mission.  

What is happening?

Since May 2024, we have been gathering feedback about the Zoom AI Companion from more than 700 members in a pilot program. Starting on June 10, all users of UC Berkeley Zoom can enable the Zoom AI Companion features within their settings so they can use it in meetings that they host. The setting will be disabled by default, and anyone interested in using the features during meetings will need to enable it before the meeting. Only meeting hosts can approve and enable the use of Zoom AI Companion during meetings and the setting can be disabled by the meeting host at any time. Meeting attendees will see a notification if a meeting has Zoom AI enabled. The features available include: 

  • Meeting Summary;
  • In-Meeting Questions;
  • Smart Recording; and 
  • Whiteboard. 

Also, on June 10, faculty and staff can use the Google Gemini App by visiting gemini.google.com. Student access is planned for the fall 2025 semester. Providing access is not meant as an endorsement of these tools or encouragement for its broad use within the educational context. Rather, recognizing that there is a range in the pedagogical utility of generative AI tools, use of Google Gemini or any other AI tool for course-related work is possible only when explicitly permitted in the instructor’s syllabus for the course. Additional guidance to instructors is forthcoming. 

We understand that there are questions and concerns about risks and ethical issues related to the use of generative AI, such as: (a) the environmental impact (i.e., use of energy, water, and other resources); (b) biases that may be incorporated into large language models (LLMs) resulting in potential data inaccuracies; (c) the potential of AI use to inhibit the intellectual development of its users (e.g., by taking over tasks that develop/maintain one’s cognitive abilities); and (d) the uncredited use (some might say plagiarism) of vast quantities of creative and intellectual work, without the authors’ permission, in the training data for LLMs. However, we understand that the demand for AI on campus is increasing and many are already using non-Berkeley sanctioned tools, which carry significant risk to the privacy and intellectual property of users. By enabling UC-licensed tools, we hope to provide equitable and secure access to the Berkeley community, and an opportunity to engage in critical and practice-informed debate as well as in related AI policymaking.  

Learn More

Follow Zoom AI Guidance & Best Practices - Review this guidance before enabling the new Zoom AI features. This includes restrictions on discussing sensitive information (classified as P3 and P4) and obtaining consent from meeting participants before enabling AI features in meetings. Like other UC meeting summaries and/or recordings, those created using AI tools are considered public records and are subject to the same disclosure requirements, where applicable. Handle information generated by the AI tools according to the applicable UC records management policy.

Get started with Google Gemini App - The Gemini App will be available at gemini.google.com for faculty and staff on June 10. To get started with Gemini:

We hope these will be valuable additions to the Productivity Tools and other AI tools available at UC Berkeley.  

Sincerely,

Benjamin E. Hermalin
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost

Tracy Shinn
Associate Vice Chancellor for IT and Chief Information Officer

Amani Nuru-Jeter
Chair, Academic Senate

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