Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini can support your academic work but their use is contingent on several factors: Your instructor's preferences, the course guidelines, and how you use them to complete research assignments.
Understand Course Expectations
Take the time to review the syllabus and any assignment instructions, as your instructor may have established rules about AI use. If it’s not explicitly mentioned, contact your professor.
Every instructor is different: Some may encourage AI for brainstorming or creating an outline, while others may prohibit it completely. Follow expectations to avoid academic integrity issues.
Using AI Tools to Support Research Tasks
Artificial intelligence can be thought of as assistant who is readily available for a myriad of tasks. There are scenarios where the use of artificial intelligence can be advantageous, such as:
Be Aware: Artificial Intelligence Can Lie
The answers generated by large language models can be described as confident, even authoritative, given the vast amounts of text-based data they were trained on before becoming available to the general public. These are tools trained to predict what sequence of words should come next in order to have an engaging back-and-forth conversation with users. These sentences can sound very convincing, even plausible, as the conversations continue.
When engaging with any AI tool, it's important to know there's a strong possibility of encountering hallucinations. A hallucination is when an AI tool generates a response that contains false information or has no bearing in reality whatsoever, despite how convincing it sounds.
Visit the fact-checking AI tab to learn more about tips and tools to utilize when assessing web-based content.