Artificial Intelligence - Student Guide

Before using genAI for an assignment check with your instructor. Some instructors may not permit AI use for any part of an assignment, while some may ask that you get permission prior to use and that you acknowledge this use.

Critical thinking requires human minds to combine knowledge, experience, and context to produce unique and thoughtful responses to questions. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can only combine and recombine information that already exists. It cannot think creatively or take into account new contexts and nuances that are necessary to effect change. 

Before using generative AI (genAI), first consider your purpose for using and how this will benefit your own learning. Ensure that you are aware of the following: 

• Course/instructor expectations regarding genAI use. Unsure? Ask your instructor
• Even if you are not directly quoting or paraphrasing AI-generated output in the assignment, it is still a good idea to acknowledge this use. Check with your instructor about their preferences for AI tool use acknowledgment.
• MacEwan's Academic Integrity Information and Writing Assignment Considerations
• The genAI’s capabilities and limitations and the data being used to generate responses
• How to use genAI ethically and some of the associated risks, such as privacy and security

Still unsure if you are ready to use genAI? This checklist from Deakin University may help you decide.

With so many generative AI tools available, deciding which one to use for a particular task can be difficult. 

Key considerations: 

• Learn which genAI tools are best for specific purposes. See examples below
• While many genAI tools may have free versions, most have usage limits without a paid subscription
• Use grounded genAI tools for information-seeking. Always confirm with reliable sources! 

For writing and wordsmithing tasks: 

• Brainstorming ideas or narrowing your topic for a research paper
• Identifying keywords and synonyms for searching in the library databases
• Summarizing and outlining information in preparation for writing tasks***
• Wordsmithing tasks, grammar checks, etc.***

***Check with your instructor before using AI for written assignments***

Examples of AI tools:

• ChatGPT
• Perplexity AI
• Microsoft Copilot- Includes data protection for MacEwan users

For internet searching tasks like:

• Finding and synthesizing information from webpages that answer your question
• Getting a summary of information from a specific website

Examples of grounded AI tools that can include web search results:

• Perplexity AI
• Microsoft Copilot - Includes data protection for MacEwan users
• Google Gemini

For scholarly research-oriented tasks like:

• Finding scholarly articles
• Synthesizing and summarizing information from scholarly articles
• Asking comprehension questions about a specific scholarly article

Start by searching library databases and Google Scholar for more comprehensive coverage

Examples of semantic search-enabled AI tools for research:

• Elicit - Uses the Semantic Scholar database 
• Assistant by Scite - Uses many sources, including open-source collections
• Consensus - Uses the Semantic Scholar database

For creative design:

• creating videos, images, and multimedia content
• analyzing a variety of music to generate original compositions
• translating text into accurate images

Examples of AI tools:

• Runway Gen-1 - synthesize new videos
• Soundful - music generator
• DALL·E - image creator

Generative AI Product Tracker: The Generative AI Product Tracker lists generative AI products that are either marketed specifically towards postsecondary faculty or students or appear to be actively in use by postsecondary faculty or students for teaching, learning, or research activities. This is a living document and will be updated regularly as new products enter the market or new information about existing products becomes available.

Before using AI in connection with a writing assignment, ask yourself: Will using AI help or hinder your learning? Are there Academic Integrity issues you need to consider? What are the communications skills your written assignment is intended to develop and assess? 

Consider these contexts, for example:

• Using genAI might be cheating if you're being graded on grammar and writing skills in a basic English course
• Using genAI to improve your work might be requested by your instructor in a senior Business course
• Using genAI might impede the development of your personal writing style or "voice" and reduce your sense of ownership and accomplishment in a Creative Writing class

Always check with your instructor prior to using AI tools for written assignments. See Acknowledging AI Use for citation and acknowledgment guidance.

Grounded AI models: One important consideration is whether the generative AI tool is grounded. Grounded models do not solely rely on statistical, predictive patterns learned from the datasets they were trained on when responding to questions. Grounded AI models are able to contextualize knowledge from data sources, user input, or external sources.

Examples:  

• Browser-integrated AI models: Contextualize responses with current, real-world data, identified through internet searches 
• Retrieval-augmented AI models : Contextualize responses with relevant data from a specified source, such as company product information or academic journal databases

On the other hand, GPT-4o, the free version of ChatGPT, is not grounded: It relies on its training data to generate responses. As of July 2024, it was last updated in October 2023 and only includes information up to that point.

Commercial Data Protection: Generative AI models learn from input users provide through prompts, shared content, and uploaded files. Because of the related privacy concerns this may pose, commercial data protection may be offered to organizations at a cost. When logged in, both user and organizational data are protected.

MacEwan users can sign in to Microsoft Copilot with their MacEwan account for commercial data protection, including:

• Prompts and responses aren't saved
• Microsoft has no eyes-on access
• Chat data isn't used to train the underlying large language models

Semantic Search: AI integrated searching tools use semantic search, which aims to give you relevant results by interpreting the meaning of your search (instead of just showing results that match the words you enter). They also include generative AI features, like responding to natural language prompts, summarizing, outlining, etc.

Using Generative AI by University of Alberta Library is licensed under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 licence.