Artificial Intelligence (AI)

For Students:

• Check your syllabus for a statement about ChatGPT or AI from your instructor first. If there is no statement, ask your instructor before using AI tools in your coursework. Unauthorized use of AI could be considered cheating.
• To avoid plagiarism, it is necessary to cite any quotes, paraphrasing and ideas you get from AI, just as you would with other sources. Some professors may also want you to explain how you used AI in completing the assignment and/or turn in the content the AI tool generated.
• AI tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini may make up credible-sounding citations to sources that do not exist, which is called “hallucinating.” Make sure you locate the full source and read it before using it in your research project.

For Instructors:

• Consider what uses of AI are acceptable within your courses. Can students use AI in some stages of the researching, writing or creating process? As a tool for brainstorming or studying? If so, be specific about what is allowed and what is not, and what the expectations are for citing AI tools. 
• Include a clear statement about AI parameters on your syllabus. See the eLearning's resources on on education and AI in the eLearning Faculty Development Canvas Course, highlighted modules include, "Fundamentals of AI in Education" and "ChatGPT, Generative AI, and the Classroom."

When using artificial intelligence, it is important to evaluate the tool itself and the tool’s output critically. Ask yourself these questions:

• What is the purpose of the tool?
• How is this tool funded? Does the funding impact the credibility of the output?
• What, if any, ethical concerns do you have about this tool? 
• Does the tool asks you to upload existing content such as an image or paper? If so, are there copyright concerns? Is there a way to opt out of including your uploaded content in the training corpus? 
• What is the privacy policy? If you are assigning this tool in a class, be sure to consider any FERPA concerns.
• What corpus or data was used to train the tool or is the tool accessing? Consider how comprehensive the data set is (for example, does it consider paywalled information like that in library databases and electronic journals?), if it is current enough for your needs, any bias in the data set, and algorithmic bias.
• If reproducibility is important to your research, does the tool support it?
• Is the information the tool creates or presents credible? Because generative AI generates content as well as or instead of returning search results, it is important to read across sources to determine credibility.
• If any evidence is cited, are the citations real or "hallucinations" (made up citations - see the glossary).