Terms of Use TIB AIssistant

Status: October 2025

Special Conditions TIB AIssistant

The TIB AIssistant services is provided by:

Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB)
German National Library of Science and Technology
Welfengarten 1 B, 30167 Hannover, Germany
Postfach 6080, 30060 Hannover, Germany

Authorised Representative:
Prof. Dr. Sören Auer (Director of TIB)

Responsible Supervisory Authority:
Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony

Tel.no Customer Service: +49 511 762 - 8989
Fax: +49 511 762 - 8998
E-mail: customerservice@tib.eu

VAT (sales tax) registration numbers:
DE 214931803

1. Scope of Application

1.1 These Special Conditions TIB AIssistant regulate the use of the TIB AIssistant as well as the rights and obligations of Registered Users and the TIB in addition to the Terms of Use of TIB.

1.2 TIB AIssistant is primarily aimed at scholars who want to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) for their research. TIB AIssistant data and software are freely accessible to everyone.

2. Registration

2.1 TIB AIssistant can only be used by registered users of ORKG (https://orkg.org/). Registration is required so that we are able to track daily token usage.

2.2 There is no entitlement to registration, account or profile. The TIB is entitled to reject registrations or terminate accounts if a violation of the Terms of Use or these Special Conditions TIB AIssistant exists or is expected.

2.3 When registering, users must agree to the Special Conditions TIB AIssistant, the processing of personal data by TIB and OpenAI and the Data Protection Declaration. If these Special Conditions TIB AIssistant are updated, Registered Users will be notified of the changes two weeks in advance via email. By subsequently continuing to use TIB AIssistant, Registered Users agree to the changes.

2.4 A usage relationship is established between the TIB and the Registered User through registration.

2.5 When registering, users are obliged to fill in mandatory fields truthfully and completely, to keep their data up-to-date and secret and to protect data from access by third parties.

2.6 Accounts may be terminated for cause by TIB. A cause can be a breach of the Terms of Use or these Special Conditions or a legal obligation or official order for TIB to block the access or any other conduct, which raises the suspicion that the user violates or will violate the Terms of Use, these Special Conditions or other legal obligations also in the future.

2.7 TIB will terminate accounts at the request of the user in text form at any time and without undue delay. All personal data in the user profile will be deleted without undue delay.

3. TIB AIssistant

3.1 Anyone can use TIB AIssistant services within reasonable limit. Daily used tokens for the use of ChatGPT of Open AI are tracked and if excessive use is detected, we reserve the right to suspend or close the respective accounts.

3.2 The source code of the basic service hosted by TIB is made available under the MIT License.

3.3 Registered Users confirm that content uploaded into the service and forwarded to Open AI or to other Third Party Services when Third Party Services are called upon by ChatGPT, does not infringe any third party rights (e.g. copyright, rights of performers, personality and publicity rights, data protection). If others are involved in the production, Registered Users confirm that all participants are aware of the content of this agreement and have given their consent.

3.4 Registered Users ensure that the uploaded and/or generated content does not violate applicable law or offend common decency, in particular does not constitute a criminal offense and does not constitute an administrative offense (e.g. infringement of copyright, trademark law, competition law) or none have offensive, discriminatory, racist, pornographic or extremist content. In the event of a violation, Section 5 applies.

3.5 If a user becomes aware of a violation of the law within the meaning of 3.3 or 3.4 he / she is obliged to inform the TIB immediately.

3.6 Registered Users will indemnify the TIB from all claims of other users or third parties that they assert against the TIB due to infringement of their rights through content made available by the respective Registered User, if the respective user can be held responsible. The respective Registered User assumes the costs of an appropriate legal defense of the TIB. This does not apply if the Registered User is not responsible for the infringement. Users are obliged to provide all information necessary for the examination of the claims and a defense in the event of a claim against the TIB truthfully and completely without further delay.

4. Functionality of the TIB AIssistant

4.1 Anyone can use the TIB AIssistant service to get AI support for their research. The TIB AIssistant aims to provide AI tools for steps throughout the research life cycle. Users must carefully evaluate AI-generated content as it may be inaccurate or misleading. Users are obliged to verify the correctness of all generated content.

4.2 The individual assistants of the TIB AIssistant can be used either in sequence or individually. When used individually, the user provides the input data manually, when used in sequence, the data from the previous step is used for the next step.

4.3 The AI tools are supported by Large Language Models (LLMs) which are provided by OpenAI. Users must agree to the use of OpenAI before they can use the TIB AIssistant. All chat messages and selected assets are sent in unmodified form to OpenAI. Chat messages and selected assets are not used for training of the LLM. But under no circumstance are users allowed to enter personal data (whether their own or other’s) into the chat window.

4.4 Data can be stored in the assets. Assets form a storage of generated artifacts, such artifacts are stored in the local storage of the browser. Assets can be removed by either clicking the reset button in the user interface or by clearing the local storage of the browser. Assets are not stored on TIB´s servers.

4.5 Assistants are able to call externally hosted tools and services via a mechanism called tool calling. Which tools can be called depends on the selected assistant, and can be modified by the user. In case the user wishes to not call any service, it is possible to disable them all. The LLM automatically extracts input parameters from the provided user messages to send to the server. Before an external tool calling is executed, the user has the possibility to verify the input that is being sent to the server. In addition, the user is able to change the input before the actual request is being made. The user must verify that no personal data is sent to the service, and must verify whether they trust the external service.

4.6 Users are able to export generated assets to a downloadable R0-Crate file or to the Overleaf platform. Only the selected content by the user is sent to Overleaf.

5. Rights and obligations of the TIB

5.1 The TIB assumes no liability that the service and its content are always uninterrupted, unchanged and available in full, as well as being up-to-date and free from errors of an editorial or technical nature. No liability is accepted for damage caused by trusting the content of the platform or its use. No liability is accepted for scientific validity and correctness of the content generated through the use of the service.

5.2 The TIB reserves the right to change the functionality, the appearance and these Special Conditions TIB AIssistant at any time. Registered Users will be informed of the changes two weeks in advance by email. By continuing to use the platform after the deadline, users agree to the changes.

5.3 The TIB is entitled to terminate its service at any time. In this case, the TIB reserves the right to terminate active accounts.

5.4 In principle, the TIB is only liable for damage caused by intent or gross negligence. In case of injuries to life, body or health statutory provisions apply.

5.5 Liability for damage from unauthorized use of password-protected logins by third parties is not accepted.

5.6 Insofar as liability is limited or excluded, this also applies in favor of executive employees (m / f), representatives (m / f) and vicarious agents (m / f) of the TIB.

5.7 If there are concrete indications of a violation of these Special Conditions TIB AIssistant, the TIB is entitled to delete content, restrict the use of the services or block the Registered User concerned. When choosing a measure, the legitimate interests of the Registered User are taken into account, in particular whether there are indications that the Registered User was not responsible for the violation.

5.8 Content that contains a legal violation according to 3.3 or 3.4 may be blocked or deleted by the TIB.

6. Miscellaneous

6.1 The usage relationship and these Special Conditions TIB AIssistant are subject to German law.

6.2 The place of jurisdiction is Hannover.

6.3 In the event of a dispute, the TIB endeavors to reach an amicable settlement.