Using Information Responsibly for Your Assignments: AI in Education

Like any other technology, Generative AI has its advantages and disadvantages when used in the context of university study and research. Here are some key problems and disadvantages that should be taken into consideration:

• Originality & Biases: Generative AI is trained on large datasets. It is not capable of "creating" original ideas. Biases may reflect those present in the training data and can be perpetuated and amplified in the content generated.
• Accuracy & Reliability: Generative AI can produce content that appears coherent and well-written, but the AI-generated information might not always be accurate or reliable.
• Plagiarism & Academic Honesty: Generative AI can be misused to generate content in assignments and research, potentially leading to higher instances of plagiarism and compromising academic integrity.
• Copyright: The copyright or intellectual property rights of the output generated by generative AI is not always clear.
• Overreliance on AI-generated Content: Students and researchers are recommended to use scholarly sources in scholarly journals, primary sources and other essential research materials for their work.

ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education Quick Start Guide (UNESCO, 2023)

Any ideas and content that did not come from yourself must be cited in your work, including those content generated by AI tools. It is also important to include the prompts you used since the “chat”(i.e. your prompts and the responses from the AI tools) is not retrievable by other readers. The prompts can be stated in your content or listed by a copy of the text as an appendix.

Below is an example showing the format of in-text citations and references in APA citation style.

In-text citation format:

• Parenthetical citation: (Company, Year).   e.g. (OpenAI, 2023).
• Narrative citation:  Company (Year)    e.g. OpenAI (2023)

You can also supplement your writing with an Appendix that included the entire "chat" and add a description in the in-text citation.

Reference format: 

• Company. (Year). AI Name (version) [Descriptor]. URL
• e.g. OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 25 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

For more information related to citing AI-generated content in different citation styles, please see below:

• APA Citation Style - How to cite ChatGPT
• Chicago Citation Style - Recommendations for Citing ChatGPT & other tools
• MLA Citation Style - How do I cite Generative AI in MLA Style?

The influx of AI not only brings many influences to academia but also brings challenges to cope with the changes. Identifying AI-written text has been one of the important points of discussion in academia. There is NO TOOL that can 100% accurately distinguish between text written by real people and text written by AI, but you can try the following tools as a reference.