Factors to Consider Using AI Tools in Academic Work
Potential Benefits of Use:
- Understand content
- Explain concepts and terms
- Practice questions and answers
- Simplify language or jargon
- Translate from other languages
- Summarize content
- From text, websites, or PDFs (avoid uploading content with copyright restrictions such as resources accessed using your Saybrook credentials)
- Create content or drafts
- Summaries, explanations, sample paragraphs, images
- Brainstorm ideas
- Improve writing
- Check grammar, spelling, sentence structure
- Offer suggestions for word choices and writing style
- Perform repetitive tasks
- Generate tables, spreadsheets
- Organize information from text
- Provide research assistance
- Help you find relevant articles and other information resources
- Suggest keywords and databases
Potential Risks of Use:
- Academic misconduct
- Use restricted or prohibited by assignment, course, or program guidelines
- Acknowledge any generative tools used and properly cite
- Misleading information
- Inaccurate, outdated, biased, lacking originality
- Verify information provided by AI tools with credible resources
- Privacy concerns
- Avoid sharing personal or sensitive information when using AI tools
- Negative impact on learning
- May reduce critical thinking
- May hinder development of writing skills
- May create dependency on tools vs. self-reliance
- Copyright infringement
- Obtain copyright permission to enter copyrighted material into a generative AI tool
Student Guide for AI Use
AI for Education provides a graphic to help students decide when and how to use AI.
