How to manage AI meeting assistants in Zoom

AI Meeting Assistants such as otter.ai and read.ai are showing up in Zoom meetings to summarize and transcribe the contents of Zoom meetings. The concerns about AI assistants in Zoom meetings is that the transcribed material could be used without permission to summarize or record meeting content on behalf of a user. AI meeting assistants also have the potential to capture and share personally identifiable information (PII) of hosts and attendees and meeting information that was not intended to be shared.

Suggestions for Zoom meetings which include an AI Meeting Assistant

When you attend a Zoom Meeting:

If you join a Zoom meeting where an AI bot is enabled, you can ask the host to disable the AI feature or choose to leave the meeting.

When you are hosting a UMN Zoom Meeting:

Block specific AI bots in your Zoom settings

1. Log into zoom.umn.edu
2. Click Settings
3. Under Security, look for “Block users in specific domains from joining meetings and webinars” and enable the slider
4. Click the pencil icon to edit the list and include the domains for the AI accounts you wish to block (e.g. otter.ai, read.ai, notta.ai, fireflies.ai, chat.ai)
5. Click Save

Use the Zoom Waiting Room feature

The waiting room gives the host an opportunity to prevent an AI bot from entering your meeting.

• How to enable the waiting room
• How to use the waiting room to admit guests

What does the AI Meeting Assistant (aka bot) look like in the Waiting Room?

• The AI bot would join the meeting as a participant
• The host or co-host has a Waiting Room set up and would screen and admit each participant
• The AI Meeting Assistant would display as “Amy’s Otter.ai Bot” or “Amy’s Firefly.ai Bot” in the waiting room
• The host can remove the AI bot and not admit them to the meeting

Remove the Bot from a Zoom Meeting

If an AI Bot has already joined your meeting, the host can remove it:

1. Click Participants
2. Click More next to the unwanted bot user
3. Click Remove

Article by Karen Matthes, Extension Learning Technologies, klm@umn.edu