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Generative AI: Academic Integrity & Ethics

Academic Integrity

It's essential to maintain transparency and set standards for incorporating AI tools into coursework. Utilizing ChatGPT or similar Generative AI tools without authorization may constitute cheating or plagiarism. Remember to seek guidance from your instructor at all times.

Considerations when using AI:

  • Verify AI-generated content:  Use credible resources and tools to fact check the ideas and information generated by AI tools. 
  • Use it as a tool: Never let AI do the whole assignment for you.  Do your own research, form your own thoughts and opinions.  
  • Review the AI guidelines:  This can include information your syllabus and additional instructions your professor gives you
  • Learn to use AI effectively and ethically:  Develop and strengthen your AI skillset 

Any assignments that allow the use of AI tools should include an acknowledgement of your AI use. Acknowledgement should include:

  • The name of the tool used and a link to the website for the tool
  •  A description of the type of task you used the tool to accomplish (e.g. generate text, generate images, edit text, generate code, etc.)
  •  A list of the specific prompt(s) used
  •  An explanation of how you used the output in your final work

 

Guidelines

AI is impacting higher education in many ways, offering opportunities to enhance teaching, learning, and administrative processes.  AI tool must be used ethically and responsibly.  Students should be aware of their instructors and institutions policies regarding the use of AI in order to maintain academic integrity.  

Higher Education Guidelines and Policies

Ethical Considerations

  • Confidentiality: AI tools collect user information that cannot be deleted - and may share information with third-party vendors. Before using AI tools, make sure to review the privacy policy of the tool(s) you've selected. 
  • Bias and Fairness: AI can produce sexist, racist or otherwise biased results.  The data the AI has been trained on will impact the quality of the results.
  • Misinformation and Manipulation:  AI can produce erroneous or misleading information (hallucinations) , including making up citations for article and book citations, and even people, that do not exist.  The data used to train the AI may not be up to date and current.
  • Copyright Risks:  AI may present copyright and intellectual property risks.  
  • Lack of originality: AI may produce output that is not unique, and can often be vague. 
  • Quality and Consistency: AI faces challenges in accuracy and fairness

Evaluating AI Tools and Output

 The LibrAIry has designed the ROBOT test as a tool for evaluating AI. The ROBOT acronym—reliability, objective, bias, ownership, and type-- can help you remember important criteria that can be used to evaluate a new and unknown AI too.  T

Reliability of documentation/ information about AI:

  • What information is available about the AI?
  • Who produced this information? The creators of the AI, or a third party? If a third party, what are their credentials? Is the information biased?
  • How much information is publicly available? What information isn't available (for example, to protect proprietary models or trade secrets)?

Objective of AI tool:

  • What is the objective of the company that created the AI?
  • What was the AI designed to do? 
  • What context was the AI designed to work in (Academic research? Public use?)

Bias of training data and output

  • Is there noticeable bias in information about the AI or information from the AI creators?
  • What training data was used in creating the AI? What bias could be included?
  • Are there documented biases in the output? When you use the AI, what bias do you notice?

Ownership of AI

  • Who is the owner or developer of the AI? What are their goals?
  • Who is responsible for the AI?
  • Who is able to access the AI? 

Type of AI

  • What type of AI is it (see LibrAIry AI Family Tree for types)
  • What kind of information system does it rely on?

 

Hervieux, S. & Wheatley, A. (2020). The ROBOT test [Evaluation tool]. The LibrAIry. https://thelibrairy.wordpress.com/2020/03/11/the-robot-test