Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity

The use of AI systems to create material for submission of an assessment and presenting it as your own work is regarded as academic misconduct and will be treated as such. Please refer to the University’s Academic Misconduct Regulations and Procedures.

How can I use AI in my academic work?

Academic positions on this are still being formed, and if you're not sure it's best to ask your tutor. But the following might be ways in which you could use AI tools.

• LLM chatbots like ChatGPT might be a useful way to get a quick overview on a topic. As with Wikipedia, we'd recommend that you follow references and check the source. If doing this, you should think critically - is this the most effective way of building your knowledge? Remember, LLMs can produce credible sounding yet incorrect content, or create references to sources that don't exist. 
• You could use an LLM to refine the style or composition of (non-assessed) writing. This can be helpful for work or professional contexts such as social media posts or sending emails.
• To summarise a longer document
• To brainstorm ideas
• To generate keywords for searches

How would I cite an AI tool like ChatGPT?

Positions on how to cite AI tools are still emerging. Some educators believe that AI can't be treated as a source like an author. An AI doesn't "know" things in and of itself, it creates content based upon the body of information that it's been trained on. 

The American Psychological Association suggest that:

"Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them".

Some people believe that AI should be cited according to the citation style of personal communication. This is because the use of an AI chatbot can in some ways resemble a conversation. 

Some educators believe that AI tools should be cited as software. 

The University will clarify guidance on citing AI tools such as ChatGPT in the UoB Harvard style in due course. In the interim, the following guidance may be helpful.