Artificial Intelligence and Library Skills
Using AI
Key things to remember if you are using AI
| Ethical use | AI should be used ethically and in guidance with university student regulations. If you are unsure, then it is important that you follow instructions from your lecturers. |
| Sustainability | Consider the environmental impact of using AI. |
| Copyright | Consider the Intellectual Property and Copyright implications of using AI. |
| Think critically | Approach any information the AI tool produces cautiously, be a critical reader and fact check responses. |
| Supplemental material | AI tools should only be used as a supplement to your research, not as a replacement. |
| Use good prompts | Check your prompts. The information you get out is only as good as the requests you put in. |
| Potential negative impact to academic developement | By using AI in a way which might undermine your skills as a university student, you will not be achieving your learning outcomes, so it may affect your academic development. |
Reference AI
You should reference use of AI tools
As the content recalled from AI tools cannot be replicated by another person and cannot be linked to, we recommend that you reference the outputs from generative AI, in the same way that you would a personal communication or correspondence.
There is Harvard guidance on referencing generative AI on Cite them Right.
Cite them right also has some background information on AI tools and academic work.
Limitations of Using AI
Risks with using information from Generative AI Tools
| Not primary sources | Information obtained from Generative AI tools should not be considered a primary source and should be used in conjunction with other sources. |
| Potential inaccuracies |
AI models can sometimes produce incorrect or biased information, it's crucial to verify information with other sources before including it in your work. |
| No critical thinking | Understand that Large Language Models are designed only to summarise, predict and generate texts. They won’t do the thinking for you. |
| Potential breach of academic conduct | Never submit chunks of text produced by AI as your own work. You may be in breach of the academic conduct regulations. |
Warning about Personal Information
- Large Language models use large amounts of data to generate its responses. This raises concerns about data privacy and security. With the new voice and image capabilities this is a further data privacy concern.
- Ensure you do not give away personal details and/or confidential information.