Library Guides: ETHS/POL 391: Tribal Sovereignty: Governance and Resistance: Using AI at UP

Tools

CoPilot - GPT-4
available to all UP users. Follow the link (or find it on the MyApps page) and sign in with your UP email and password.
Developed by Microsoft
Runs on GPT-4, responds to image and text prompts, trained on data through October 2023, and connected to the Internet.

Prompts

"Surprisingly Effective Follow-Up Prompts" by Mike Caulfield

A strong AI prompt consists of clarity, specificity, and iterative refinement (Holbeck, 2025).

Use open-ended prompts, e.g.,
- What is the effect of ____ upon ____?
- What is the evidence for and against [this assertion] being true?
- What are the benefits and drawbacks of using AI in [activity]?
Layer prompts; add context and constraints, e.g.,
- Explain ____ in the context of ____ and its impact on ____.

Holbeck, R. (2025, June 27). Helping students develop AI prompting skills for critical thinking. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/helping-students-develop-ai-prompting-skills-for-critical-thinking/

Ethical Use

Familiarize yourself with UP's policies on using AI. If you use a generative AI tool for writing, be transparent with your professors. Acknowledge your uses of the tool (such as editing your writing or translating words) within your paper, in a note, or in another suitable location like an appendix.

Ethical Question:

Should generative AIs be credited the same way as human authors? Citations are used to credit the work of other people and give readers a path to the sources used. A reader can then find and look at those sources to make their judgment on things like authority and accuracy. AI tools generate text in human language but may not accurately identify specific sources used. However, they can fabricate convincing citations to sources that don't exist.

What can you do?

Cite a generative AI tool when you paraphrase, quote, or incorporate other content (e.g., text, images, data) from it into your own work.
Providing a record of chat prompts and responses can also be helpful for someone assessing your work. Take screenshots or provide share links (now available for ChatGPT and Gemini).
When it comes to finding reliable sources, use search tools and resources featured in our library guides. They are still the most effective way to find and connect to real published sources.

Example AI content

Tribal Sovereignty & the Coquille Tribe