Frequently asked questions

You can upload structured research datasets in the following formats: CSV, Excel (.xlsx), JSON (.json/.jsonl), HDF5, TSV, and Parquet. Do not upload sensitive or regulated data (e.g., PHI, financial account numbers, precise geolocation). If your data is governed by regulatory requirements (e.g., subject to HIPAA, GDPR, or similar frameworks), please refer to Question 6 (“What changes in a self-hosted (institution-managed) deployment”) for more details. Self-hosting is currently the only option for using Asta with regulated data.

Key points

• Uploaded files remain associated with your account.
• We never share, sell, or redistribute your uploaded datasets.
• Uploaded datasets are automatically purged 7 days after upload from within our systems.
• If we detect sensitive or regulated data:
  
  • We will attempt to notify you at the email address you provided
  • We may remove the affected files to maintain compliance with our Terms of Use.
  • ⚠️ Note: You are solely responsible for ensuring your uploaded datasets complies with relevant laws and institutional policies. Ai2 is not liable for any misuse or unauthorized disclosure resulting from prohibited uploads.

• We do not share your uploaded datasets with third parties and we do not make them public.
• Limited, least-privilege access by Ai2 system administrators to your datasets may occur for safety, reliability, or legal reasons. For example, to investigate a bug or system issue.
• If you choose to opt in to allow your de-identified interactions with Asta (e.g., prompts, outputs, analysis steps) to be included in a public research dataset, we will use those interactions only for research purposes; i.e., to improve Asta.
• Regardless of your consent setting, your raw uploaded datasets are never redistributed or used for advertising or profiling.

• Raw uploaded datasets are never used for model training.
• Prompts and interactions (your questions, feedback, and system events) may be temporarily logged to improve reliability and Asta quality, but they are not used to train models without explicit opt-in consent.

Explorations are designed for short research sessions:

• An exploration is active for the first 24 hours. During that window you can ask follow-ups.
• After 24 hours, the exploration becomes read-only: you can view results, but you cannot continue the conversation in that exploration. To keep working, start a new exploration.
• If you uploaded multiple files to an exploration, deletion is at the exploration level (you can’t remove individual files from that exploration).

When You’re Signed In

• You can view and delete any of your explorations at any time in the hosted Asta interface.
• Deleting an exploration will remove:
  
  • All datasets uploaded into that exploration
  • All analyses, results, and outputs generated in that exploration
• Deletion is immediate and permanent. No recovery of deleted data is possible
• Uploaded datasets are automatically purged 7 days after upload if not deleted earlier. You can continue to access exploration summaries and results, but the source files themselves are deleted.

When You’re Using Asta Anonymously

• Recent explorations may be visible to you via browser cookies, allowing you to revisit and delete them while the cookie is intact.
• However, if you clear your cookies, you will lose access to those explorations (and the ability to delete them), as they are no longer associated with your browser session.
• To manage storage and maintain system hygiene:
  
  • Uploaded datasets are automatically purged 7 days after upload if not deleted earlier.
  • Anonymous explorations with no activity for 30 days will be deleted automatically.
  • Once deleted, these explorations cannot be recovered.
• Tip: To ensure you retain access to your data and can manage your explorations directly, we recommend signing in.

Self-hosting gives your organization full control over storage, retention, access policies, and compliance.

• You  decide where data lives, who can access it, how long it’s kept, and how it’s deleted at your institution. You are responsible for setting and enforcing these policies, including any applicable legal or compliance requirements.
• Self-hosting is the only recommended path for regulated data (e.g., PHI under HIPAA, controlled datasets under specific data-use agreements, GDPR residency needs).
• In self-hosted deployments, access to uploaded data is controlled entirely by your organization. Ai2 does not have visibility into datasets stored or processed in your environment.

Asta Preview is an early-access program designed for scientific innovators. Members get exclusive access to upcoming Asta features (like DataVoyager) before the public, as well as experimental prototypes directly from our research labs (like Paper+Figure QA). We are releasing these "lab-fresh" experiences to solicit feedback and test whether they can truly accelerate your science in real-world scenarios.

We are looking for "Enthusiast Early Adopters" across all domains, from bioscience and climate research to computer science.

• Roles: Active researchers, scientists, grad students, and research-adjacent professionals (clinicians, journalists, analysts).‍
• Mindset: You understand that research is iterative. You are willing to test evolving tech and provide the critical feedback needed to shape it.

We know that science is not a single problem to be solved. The workflows of a biologist differ vastly from those of a climate scientist, and AI built in isolation often misses that nuance. We are launching Asta Preview to build a direct bridge to the scientific community— - especially those outside of computer science. We need your domain expertise to ensure our tools work for your reality, rather than forcing you to adapt to generic AI models. We want to close the gap between what is technically possible and what is scientifically useful.

No. While we want to fix errors, this is primarily about utility testing. We are transparently trying to figure out how to make these agents useful. We aren't just looking for broken buttons; we need to know if the AI can actually deliver value for your real-world research needs.

Yes. You can leave the program at any time. Just email us at asta-support@allenai.org. If you opt out, you will return to the standard public version of Asta and lose access to the experimental features.

Beyond early access, you get a seat at the table:

• Influence the roadmap: Help us validate use cases. If a feature doesn't work for your data format, tell us so we can prioritize a fix.
• Direct access: Join small-group sessions with the engineers and researchers building Asta.
• Competitive edge: Be the first to integrate agentic AI into your literature review and analysis.
• Potential for collaboration: We view our Preview cohort as our primary pool for future partnerships and deeper collaborations.

The commitment is light and flexible:

• Use it: Try Asta in your real research. The best way to help us is to use the tools for your actual work.
• Be understanding: These features are still being built. We appreciate your patience if things look rough or don't work perfectly. ‍
• Be honest: We will send short surveys now and then. Please tell us the truth. If a feature isn't useful to you, we need to know.