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Using Information Ethically

This guide will introduce you to the importance of using information ethically in your academic work. We will discuss academic integrity, strategies for avoiding plagiarism, and ethical issues with generative artificial intelligence.

What Does AI Have to Do with Academic Integrity?

Artificial intelligence raises numerous ethical questions and one of those is around how AI impacts academic integrity. It is important to remember that currently AI is mimicking human behaviors, not replacing our ability to think critically and solve problems. AI is also based on content created by others, which leads to some ethical questions around using AI content without noting which tool was used and how it was used. 

The next couple of pages will briefly explain what generative AI is and how you can use AI ethically and responsibly.  

What is Generative AI?

Generative AI is a type of AI that creates new content or data. It's telling the machine what to do and then having it create something. For example, generative AI can create new images, music, text or stories but they are based on data that already exists. It's like having a robot create something for you using materials available to them.

What kind of materials can be created using AI?
  • Letters/Emails
  • Music
  • Art/Graphics
  • Videos
  • Code
  • And more....the list is always growing!
This video helps explain what generative AI is:

Using AI for Academic Work

What are the pros and cons of using AI?

AI can be helpful in certain ways. It is good at helping us:

  • Generate topic ideas
  • Develop keywords
  • Develop research questions
  • Understand difficult concepts
  • Summarize large amounts of content
  • Get feedback on our work

But AI also has some issues around using it for our academic work:

  • Accuracy is not always there - AI makes up information and sources. Verify all AI-generated content.
  • AI can generate copyrighted content without the source information, which is then plagiarism.
  • AI can use content you input in its training data, or otherwise disregard privacy concerns, so be careful what you input into AI.
  • AI has limited access to information that is not publicly available, so articles or information behind paywalls, or in certain databases will not be included in any content it generates. 
  • Bias is an issue in a lot of the information out there and AI is not an exception. It will generate biased content due to the bias in all its training data.