ITS AI Release Notes

Overview

This release focuses on optimizing the performance and reliability of U-M GPT, Maizey, and MiMaizey, introducing new features, and fixing existing issues to enhance user experience.

Optimizations

Optimized U-M GPT, Maizey, and MiMaizey to increase reliability and reduce instances of hung states or timeouts that prevent responses.

Maizey

New Features

• Users can now change the MCommunity groups associated with a Maizey project.
  • Note: Changes will take effect once the user logs off and logs back in.
• Users can now enable Maizey Indexing tasks if they have been disabled.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where users could trigger duplicate indexing tasks.
• Fixed an issue where users would receive no feedback when clicking the Reindex button if Maizey indexing was busy.
• Fixed an issue where the Maizey Google Drive connector would try to load unsupported file types, causing the indexing task to fail.
• The following file types are supported in Google Drive connector: .txt, .docx, .md, .pdf (text searchable), .xlsx, .xls, .csv, .html, .htm, .pptx, Google Docs and Google Sheets

MiMaizey

New Features

• MiMaizey now includes a conversation memory feature, enabling it to recall previous queries and responses within individual conversations, providing smoother and more context-aware interactions throughout each session. 
• MiMaizey now understands additional information about the user.
  • Example: Asking "Who Am I?" will return "John Doe, regular staff member at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus."
• MiMaizey now includes web search functionality, enabling it to search within University of Michigan websites to provide up-to-date and comprehensive information
  • Supported domains include: *.umich.edu, *.mgoblue.com, *.michigandaily.com, *.umdearborn.edu, *.umflint.edu, *.uofmhealth.org.

Improvements

• Enhanced MiMaizey's ability to handle timeouts and network disruptions.
• Updated MiMaizey’s loading interface to make it more responsive.
   

New Feature: MiMaizey

• MiMaizey is a specialized AI assistant designed for the University of Michigan student community.

Core Features

• Course Information
  • Provides information and support for courses integrated with Maizey AI tutors.
  • Answers questions about class materials available on Canvas.
• Dining Menus
  • Offers up-to-date meal options from dining halls such as Bursley, South Quad, East Quad, and Mosher Jordan.
• Student Club/Organization Finder
  • Helps students find and connect with organizations that match their interests via Maize Pages.
• GenAI Help
  • Offers guidance on how to use U-M’s GenAI services like U-M GPT, Maizey, and the AI Toolkit.
• Campus Information
  • Delivers information about university buildings including hours of operation, locations, and services.
  • Assists with navigating campus facilities such as the Michigan Union, Pierpont Commons, and libraries.
  • Provides details on transportation options, U-M bus routes, electric vehicle charging stations, and parking locations.
• Student Support
  • Offers guidance on a wide range of student resources and services.
  • Directs students to support services for academic, personal, fitness, and health challenges.

New Model: GPT-4o (Omni) has been added to U-M GPT and U-M Maizey. It has a knowledge cutoff date of October 2023.

• The GPT-4-Turbo model has been removed.
• The GPT-3.5-Turbo model has been removed.

Maizey

• Enhancement: Canvas Integration
  • Simplified the process of creating Maizey projects using Canvas as a data source.
  • See Getting Started with Maizey Canvas Connector for step-by-step instructions. More information is available on the U-M Canvas Maizey Integration page.
• Fixed an issue where users would get a 500 error if an invalid URL was added to the URL Extractor.

Maizey

• Fixed an issue with the Google Drive and Dropbox connectors where indexing tasks would timeout.
• Fixed an issue where Canvas course Pages were not being indexed properly.
• Enhancement: Improved response parsing to ensure more natural and accurate outputs.
  • Hyperlinks now display in blue, making them easily distinguishable from the surrounding text.
     

U-M GPT and Maizey have been optimized to increase reliability and reduce hung states or timeouts that prevent a response.

U-M GPT

• Enhancement: Improved response parsing to ensure more natural and accurate outputs.
  • Bulleted/numbered lists now display with improved clarity for better readability.
  • Hyperlinks are now displayed in blue, making them easily distinguishable from the surrounding text.
  • Enhanced Latex/Katex support for better rendering of mathematical and scientific expressions.

Maizey

• New Feature: Customizable Chunks setting
  • Background: When Maizey retrieves text from your indexed data sources, it breaks the data into smaller chunks of text in order to more efficiently determine relevance and produce a response.
  • You now have the ability to set a custom value for the number of data chunks Maizey uses to respond to your prompt.
  • The default Chunks setting is 4, but you can customize this number with a value between 1-100. Increasing this number allows Maizey to access more indexed data and may improve query responses. 
  • Caution: Setting the Chunks value too high may result in errors or slower response times.
• Enhancement: For projects using Public URL data sources, you can now edit/update your list of URLs in the Maizey project settings.
  • Open your Maizey project, click Data Source, and then click Edit Source to modify your URLs.
• Resolved an issue with certain PDFs that failed to index in Google Drive.
• Addressed a problem in the Maizey billing dashboard where the current day’s data was missing.
   

U-M GPT / Maizey

• User interfaces (UIs) have been updated to improve performance in mobile browsers.

Maizey

• Enhancement: Projects using public website(s) as a data source
  • The field in which you enter public website URL(s) being used as a data source has been redesigned to better facilitate a large number of URLs.
  • When listing multiple URLs, you can now list each URL on its own line (comma separated lists are no longer used).
  • Added URL validation to catch improperly formatted URLs. An error message will display if improperly formatted URLs are entered in the field.
• Enhancement: Index Data button confirmation.
  • After clicking the Index Data button, a confirmation pop-up message displays before indexing begins.
• Fixed an issue where Maizey project URLs would display incorrectly.
• Fixed an issue where incorrect billing values would sometimes display.

• U-M GPT / Maizey have been optimized to increase reliability and reduce hung states or timeouts that prevent a response.
• Enhancement: Added a math equation and code formatter.
  • Math equations and code are now properly formatted in responses.
  • For example, ask to show code in Python or math equations in KaTex or LaTex.

Maizey

• Enhancement: Added a pop-up warning when changing the Chain option.
  • When changing the Chain option between Retrieval QA and Conversational QA, a warning now displays notifying users that making the change will reset their System Prompt.
• Fixed an accessibility issue where Tab and spacebar keyboard commands wouldn’t correctly toggle the Private Project option when creating a new project.  
• Fixed an issue where projects using Canvas as a data source would fail to index if the Description field was left blank in the Canvas Syllabus tool.
   

Maizey

New Feature: Chat Export

• We have incorporated a new feature into Maizey allowing you to export your chat conversations as a text file. Exported conversations are saved in Maizey under Project Exports for seven days, and then are deleted.

The following Python package was updated:

• Langchain

Maizey

• Fixed an issue where after creating a Maizey project, editing the System Prompt would cause it to reset to the default text.

The following Python packages were updated:

• langchain

U-M GPT

• Increased rate limits for GPT 3.5

Maizey

• Fixed an issue where AI Settings were not savable.
• Fixed an issue where clicking Index Data multiple times created a backlog of tasks.
   

• Temporary staff now have access to U-M GPT and U-M Maizey.
• The Langchain Python package was updated.

Maizey

• Two new fields have been added when you create a new Maizey project.
  • Viewer Group displays MCommunity Groups for which you are a member. Members of this group can use the AI tool you create.
  • Owner Group displays MCommunity Groups for which you are an owner. Owners of this group can edit the Maizey project you create. 
  • Existing Maizey projects will still use the original rules and permissions associated with the MCommunity group selected when the project was created. Group owners can edit the Maizey project, and group members can use the AI tool you created.
• Enhancements made to improve indexing speed.
• Fixed an issue where Personal Projects were not showing on the Check Task Results page.
   

UMGPT

• Fixed issue where responses would display in incorrect order.
• Textbox improvements.

Maizey

• Canvas Connector now indexes connected lecture recording sites from the CAEN Lecture Recording system.
• A new View Data Source button has been added, which takes you to the URL of the data source used for your project.
• Rate limits have been increased.
• Fixed issue where Canvas data sources were not displayed correctly.
• Added descriptive error messages when project or AI Settings are missing.
• Fixed issue where the project would not be viewable if the data source is empty.
• Removed extra trailing parentheses that were showing in returned Maizey sources.
• Fixed issue where incorrect Creator name would display in the footer when editing a project.  
   

• Fixed issue so that the chat box no longer overlays on top of a response.

Maizey

• Fixed issue where users were unable to view projects they had been granted access to.
• Fixed issue where locked modules in Canvas would prevent Maizey from indexing the course. Maizey will now skip locked modules and continue indexing the rest of the course.
• Fixed issue where users were asked to allow Gmail access when indexing from Google Drive. Users will now only be asked to allow Google Drive access.