AI Tools and Resources

Ethical Questions:

• How can you use AI tools and maintain academic integrity (including avoiding plagiarism)? 
• Are AI tools impacting your education? Do they undermine your opportunity to learn or do they enhance your understanding?
• Are AI tools providing biased responses? 

Generative AI can be useful for:

• Developing ideas for a topic and identifying related concepts.
• Suggesting which library databases might be useful for finding sources, and which keywords or search strategies to try when searching those other databases. (You can also get human help with all of these tasks and more from the Clark Library!)
• Providing suggestions for improving writing. (You can also get human help with writing from the University's Writing Center!)
• Creating translations and asking questions in another language.
• Assisting with computer coding tasks. 

Limitations of current generative AI:

• Reliability: They can't assess the accuracy or logical consistency of the text they generate. They can make up facts and credible-looking sources, complete with citations to nonexistent books and articles. This phenomenon is often referred to as a "hallucination" or "confabulation."
• Bias: They perpetuate systemic biases. They are trained on datasets scraped from the Internet, which includes all the racist, sexist, ableist, and otherwise discriminatory language and images found there. 
• Legal Violations: They can infringe on copyright and intellectual property.

What can you do? 

• Develop your fact-checking skills so you can spot and correct errors that generative AI tools might make. Clark Library staff can help! 
• Verify citations and sources provided by generative AI tools. Not sure how? Ask your helpful Clark Library team!
• Develop depth of knowledge in your discipline or areas of interest so you can identify erroneous or biased information.
• Ask other human experts like your professors or teaching assistants.
• In general, learn more about the tech tools you use. Find out how they are trained, their purpose, and their limitations.

As a student, there are a few things you can do to avoid the misuse of AI tools:

1) Familiarize yourself with the University's Code of Academic Integrity which includes this example of an academic integrity violation:

"Misuse of AI – The misuse of artificial intelligence technologies (AI) to circumvent learning goals or to engage in research misconduct is considered a violation of academic integrity comparable to cheating or plagiarism. What constitutes use or misuse of AI will differ depending on context and discipline. It may include, but is not limited to: [1] submitting work generated by AI as one’s own without proper acknowledgement; [2] accessing or using AI tools without authorization; and [3] failure to acknowledge AI-generated contributions to an assignment or other academic work."

2) Understand each of your professor's expectations around the use of AI tools by reading their course syllabus and following up with them if you have more questions. The University has a required syllabus statement on academic integrity that includes AI use (excerpted below): 

"The misuse of AI to shortcut course learning outcomes will be treated as a violation of academic integrity comparable to plagiarism or cheating. Faculty are responsible for including a written “Course AI Policy” in their syllabi that clearly states what they consider appropriate and inappropriate uses of AI in the context of their courses. Students are responsible for using AI in ways that do not detract from the established learning outcomes of the course. All members of the scholarly community are responsible for demonstrating sound judgment in discerning when and how to utilize AI in their work, upholding standards of citation, originality, and integrity."

3) The University's 2024-2025 Student Handbook (p. 32) states: 

"Information Services fully allows students to make use of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT and image generators. However, each course may have its own standards for how to acceptably incorporate AI-generated content into submitted work. These standards will be communicated in each course syllabus and can be discussed with the course faculty. AI is a powerful tool but is still rapidly changing and growing as a technology. Students are encouraged to find resources at UP and online to learn more about how to use it safely and effectively. Remember when interacting with any AI that any information you provide can become part of the permanent data set owned by the AI creator. Be very wary of sharing private or sensitive information."