Getting support

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions. If you have any additional questions or issues, please reach out to support@email.com

Frequently asked questions

Who created this platform?

The UoB AI Gateway is a experiential platform, developed by the IT Innovation and Cloud Platform Team to provide University of Birmingham staff and students with API access to cutting-edge AI services.

Why would I use this platform?

This platform is specifically designed to support those interested in building or integrating Generative AI (GenAI) capabilities into new or existing applications and projects.

  • For university staff and students: It provides the technical API (Application Programming Interface) interface necessary to communicate directly with our AI models. An API is a set of rules that allows different software applications to communicate with each other.

  • For Security and Privacy: The APIs accessible through the University AI Gateway are secure, private, and exclusive to university staff and students. Utilising these APIs instead of public services (like generic, un-gated ChatGPT access) ensures the protection of your data and intellectual property from unauthorised use, such as the future training of external models.

    Note: This is not a typical chat-based GenAI platform. It is best suited for users with a basic understanding of using APIs to interface with web services

How do I get started?

Getting started is simple, but requires a few key steps:

  1. Subscribe: Browse the Products section and subscribe to the specific APIs you wish to use.

  2. Get Keys: Upon subscription, you will be issued a Subscription Key. This key is essential for authentication and must be included in the header of all your API calls.

  3. Explore Documentation: Refer to the API documentation provided on this portal for detailed request formats, parameters, and examples.

How should I use the APIs?

The APIs are intended to be integrated directly into your applications, research tools, or scripts.

  • Integration: You will use standard HTTP methods (like POST) to send requests (e.g., text prompts) to the AI models hosted on the gateway.

  • Authentication: Each request must include your unique Subscription Key for successful access.

  • Best Practices: We encourage you to start with the example code provided in the documentation for each model to ensure you are structuring your requests correctly

How is data secured on the AI Gateway?

Data security and privacy are paramount:

  • The UoB AI Gateway runs on the University's private and controlled cloud environment.

  • All APIs are secured via authentication and authorisation checks, ensuring only UoB staff and students can access the service.

Data is protected by the following ways:

  • Data Ownership: You retain full ownership of all your data (prompts, completions, and uploaded content).

  • Data Residency: When data is stored and processed it is within the UK and EU and encrypted at rest.

  • Encryption: Some models require data to be processed outside the UK. In these circumstances data is protected by encryption in transit (TLS 1.2+) and never stored at rest outside of the specified home region.

  • Isolation & Statelessness: Interactions are logically isolated, and models are stateless (prompts/completions are not permanently stored).

  • No Training Use: Your prompts and completions are not used to train or improve the models.

  • Access Control: API calls are secured using Microsoft Entra ID (recommended) or subscription keys.