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Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Students

Provides a general overview of uses, tools, and issues with GenAI (generative artificial intelligence).

What does it mean to be AI literate?

Being 'AI literate' means you understand what AI tools can do, how they work, and how to use them responsibly.  

It doesn't mean you need to be a computer programmer.  It means you can:

Some of the skills you will need in your learning and study include:

  • Choose the right tool for the task.
  • Understand the limits and risks of using AI.
  • Think critically about the information AI gives you.
  • Use AI ethically and responsibly in your coursework.

Just like learning how to research or cite sources, learning how to work with AI is now part of being a well-prepared student.

How AI tools work (in simple terms)

Most AI tools work by recognizing patterns in huge amounts of data.

For example:

  • grammar checker compares your writing to common rules of English.
  • Generative AI (GenAI) tools, like ChatGPT or Copilot, predict what words or images should come next based on patterns from the data they were trained on. 

These tools don't understand your assignment the way a human does.  They can give helpful suggestions or create content--but they don't know if it's correct, fair, or ethical.  

Common tools students use

Here are some AI tools you might already use (or hear about in class):

Tool Type Examples What It Does
Grammar & Spelling Checkers Grammarly, Microsoft Editor, Google Docs suggestions Checks and fixes writing errors
Writing Assistants ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot Generates text based on prompts
Paraphrasing & Summarizing Tools Quillbot, ChatGPT, Wordtune Rewrites or summarizes existing text
AI Image Generators DALL-E, Midjourney, Adobe Firefly Creates images based on text prompts
Search & Research Helpers Perplexity, AI search tools in Bing or Google Provides quick information and sources (sometimes unreliable)

Each tool has its own strength and risks.  Knowing how to use them well is part of being AI literate.  

AI tools

NOTE: AI detectors are far from perfect and have very high false positive and false negative rates. They may incorrectly flag legitimate student work as having been written by AI or fail to detect work that was generated by AI. It is particularly prone to having false positives for text written by people that aren't writing in their first language. Relying on AI detectors without human judgement can lead to unfair assessments.

There may be privacy and security concerns with submitting student work to these detectors, particularly without their knowledge or consent.

Text Detectors

Image Detectors

Evaluating AI - ROBOT Test

Being AI Literate does not mean you need to understand the advanced mechanics of AI. It means that you are actively learning about the technologies involved and that you critically approach any texts you read that concern AI, especially news articles. 

Here is a tool that you can use when reading about AI applications to help consider the legitimacy of the technology.

Reliability

  • How reliable is the information available about the AI technology?
  • If it’s not produced by the party responsible for the AI, what are the author’s credentials? Bias?
  • If it is produced by the party responsible for the AI, how much information are they making available? 
  • Is information only partially available due to trade secrets?
  • How biased is they information that they produce?

Objective

  • What is the goal or objective of the use of AI?
  • What is the goal of sharing information about it?
  • To inform?
  • To convince?
  • To find financial support?

Bias

  • What could create bias in the AI technology?
  • Are there ethical issues associated with this?
  • Are bias or ethical issues acknowledged?
  • By the source of information?
  • By the party responsible for the AI?
  • By its users?

Owner

  • Who is the owner or developer of the AI technology?
  • Who is responsible for it?
  • Is it a private company?
  • The government?
  • A think tank or research group?
  • Who has access to it?
  • Who can use it?

Type

  • Which subtype of AI is it?
  • Is the technology theoretical or applied?
  • What kind of information system does it rely on?
  • Does it rely on human intervention? 

Adapted from "The ROBOT Test" by S. Hervieux & A. Wheatley via The LibrAIry, which is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Creative Commons License

How to talk to AI: writing better prompts

AI tools do best when you give them clear, specific instructions. This is called writing a prompt.

Example of a weak prompt:

Write an essay about climate change.

Example of a strong prompt:

Help me brainstorm three specific examples of how climate change is affecting coastal cities.  Keep the explanation simple and under 100 words.

The clearer your prompt, the more helpful the AI's response will be.

See our page on Writing Better Prompts for more tips and examples.