Purpose

SAIL provides staff and eligible postgraduate researchers with approved AI tools and workflows for university work.

Scope: Access is limited to a combined total of up to 1,400 staff and postgraduate researchers. The Head of Innovation and Mobile Development must approve each access request before an account is created.

Every account must be linked to an approved use case. Postgraduate researchers must submit a use case for approval before access is granted. Other direct student access is outside this service scope.

1. Scope

This policy applies to:

• All approved users of the SAIL platform, whether Bailrigg staff or Postgraduate Researchers.

• All forms of interaction with generative AI services accessed through SAIL, including text, image, and code generation.

• Any device used to access SAIL, whether on campus or remotely.

2. Authorised Purposes

Use SAIL only within an approved use case. Use cases involving personal data or sensitive information will be reviewed with university governance to confirm the required approvals and conditions before processing.

3. Prohibited Uses

You must not use SAIL to:

• Generate or disseminate extremist, terrorist, hateful, violent, discriminatory, or illegal content.

• Promote radicalisation or undermine safeguarding obligations, including activity contrary to the University’s Prevent Duty.
• Breach copyright or intellectual property rights, including uploading or prompting with unlicensed or confidential third-party materials.

• Circumvent guardrails or attempt to disable monitoring tools built into SAIL.

• Access unapproved external AI services via SAIL or use SAIL to proxy access to personal accounts with third-party providers.

3. Data Handling and Privacy

Prompts, uploaded files and generated outputs are retained on a rolling 30-day basis, unless a different period is formally approved, documented and communicated. Users may delete individual chats where this functionality is available. Logs, access records, backups and provider records may have different retention periods, which will be documented in the service retention schedule. Chat deletion does not necessarily remove these records immediately. Monitoring is limited to the purposes explained in the Privacy Notice. Purpose records and usage information will not be used for individual performance management.

5. Responsibilities of Users

By using SAIL you agree to:

• Exercise critical judgement – outputs may be inaccurate, biased, or incomplete. You are responsible for verifying content before use.

• Acknowledge AI assistance when required by academic or professional standards.

• Undertake mandatory training on Responsible AI and Prevent duty awareness before accessing the platform.

• Report misuse or concerning outputs promptly via the University’s reporting channels.

• Respect licence conditions of Azure AI Foundry and Microsoft’s Customer Copyright Commitment, ensuring responsible use of outputs.

5. Monitoring and Enforcement

All SAIL usage is subject to monitoring in line with University policy and legal obligations.

Breaches of this policy may result in:

• Suspension of access to SAIL.
• Disciplinary action under staff or student procedures.
• Referral to external authorities where required by law (e.g. in relation to terrorism, extremism, or criminal offences).

6. Related Policies

This AUP should be read alongside:

• Lancaster University Computer User Agreement.

• Information Security and Data Protection Policies.

• Prevent Duty Guidance (Counterterrorism and Security Act 2015).

• Academic Integrity policies.

• Microsoft Responsible AI and Copyright Commitment.

7. Acceptance of Policy

By accessing SAIL, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to comply with this Acceptable Use Policy.