Laurel Ridge's Approved AI tools
Google Gemini and Microsoft CoPilot, when properly logged in, are the official AI currently approved for use by faculty and students.
The VCCS also approves of NotebookLM, which you can also log into through myVCCS accounts.
Google Gemini for Education
Teaching & Learning, Writing & Analysis, Research & Analysis. Google's multimodal AI assistant with advanced reasoning capabilities. Analyze documents, images, and data while maintaining educational privacy standards. It has Multimodal analysis (text, images, documents); Advanced reasoning and problem-solving; and Educational privacy protections. The standard model does not perform live web searches.
Microsoft Copilot (Standard)
Productivity, Teaching & Learning, Administrative Support. Microsoft 365 Copilot is a secure AI-powered chat experience—grounded in web-based knowledge, enabling users to interact via a side-by-side interface, upload files, use AI agents, and benefit from enterprise-level controls like data protection and agent management. It has AI-Powered Chat; Context-Aware Side‑by‑Side Experience; File Upload, Image Generation & Copilot Pages; AI Agents—Templates & Custom Creations; Conversation History & Continuity; and Educational privacy protections. Laurel Ridge Update on Microsoft Copilot Training
NotebookLM
Research & Analysis, Teaching & Learning. AI-powered research assistant that helps you understand complex documents. Upload your sources and get personalized insights, summaries, and interactive Q&A. It has: Document analysis and summarization; AI-generated audio overviews; Interactive source-based Q&A; and Citation tracking and verification
Virginia's Banned AI Tools
DeepSeek AI is NOT allowed on Commonwealth of Virginia devices or state-run networks.
Also, any applications developed by ByteDance Limited or Tencent Holdings Limited, which include TikTok and WeChat, are not allowed (E.O.24).
Other AI Tools
These tools are neither banned nor vetted for approval, so approach them with caution and assume any information you enter into them is not secure or private. Do Not log in with your work email.
ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/ - A Generative AI Tool by OpenAI. It is one of the most popular and well-known tools available. It is Free to use, though yo0u can pay for additional features. Company description of the tool is here: What is ChatGPT? A paid user can use features that include building your own custom GPT model: DIY GPTs. DALL-E used to be their standalone image generation AI, but that has since been folded into ChatGPT's general functionality.
Claude AI: https://www.anthropic.com/index/claude-2 - A Generative AI Tool by Anthropic, this chatbot includes understanding documents, images, and schedules. It is free, with paid additional features.
Grammarly: https://www.grammarly.com/ - A common writing assistance app that acts as a browser plugin, used for helping people reword what they're writing as they write it, they've integrated AI features over the last few years to warrant an inclusion in this list of AI applications. It is free, though you can pay for additional capabilities.
Image Designer by Microsoft: https://designer.microsoft.com/image-creator - an AI image program, you cannot use it from a browser that is logged in to your VCCS account, as it isn't a part of our data-secure AI integration pipeline. This is a graphic design tool that can also be found nested within the larger Microsoft Designer app.
Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/ - A freemium chatbot much like ChatGPT, also very popularly used. They have been improving its research abilities recently, compete with ChatGPT's research capabilities.
Jasper: https://www.jasper.ai/ - A free demo is available, but then you have to pay. This AI is focused on marketing roles and associated uses of AI.
Midjourney: https://www.midjourney.com/ - Probably the most well-known .gif (moving image) generation tool, plans start at $10/mo.
Stable Diffusion, https://stability.ai/ - Probably the most well-known Movie generation ai, they also model images, audio, and 3D files.
A long list of more AI tools: There's An AI For That® — Find The Right AI Tool For Any Task
See More:
AI Tool and Resources - VCCS