As artificial intelligence becomes more pervasive day by day, it is important that we understand how it can be used as a tool versus how it can be destructive to ethical data practices including research and academic integrity. As college students, we are exposed to AI nearly every day and are well aware of its capabilities. Yet, there are certain rules and practices related to academic research that we MUST follow. In fact, the reputations of our partners and Dr. Howard are at extreme risk if you use AI, especially in undisclosed ways.

When it comes to the work that we do at CAIDS, there are certain ways that AI can be used, and others that are banned.

The following are some ways that AI may be used in a constructive and beneficial way:

• Brainstorming about an idea / ideation, in general
• Asking for relevant online sources that you can explore (preliminary searches).

When AI is used in the above ways, it MAY be helpful, but you also have the ability to brainstorm ideas and conduct preliminary research on your own. Being able to conduct these skills on your own are STILL vitally important.

We need to make sure that the ways in which we interact with AI are helping us grow as learners, and not cutting corners. In the real world, you wouldn’t benefit from having someone else do all the work on a project that your name is attached to, so we should always make sure that we are producing our own work. Our projects have real impacts and affect the reputations and careers of our partners, and if we were to let AI do all of the work then we would be greatly disrespecting CAIDS as well as the project partners that count on our quality work.

The following are some ways that AI cannot be used in our lab:

• Asking questions to help you understand/learn about a topic. You should conduct your own research from valid sources.
• Generating code that is then pasted into our projects.
• Generating text then pasting it ANYWHERE. Any instance where you are copy and pasting from the AI into a document is a violation of the honor code. All work should be cited and in your own words or quoted.
• Automating the process of data encoding
• Avoiding reading articles/passages that are assigned by asking for quick summaries. You still need to be able to read and comprehend complex and lengthy works to be a critical thinker.
• Cleaning or entering data without prior approval.

If you want to use AI, then you must submit in writing a proposal to the PDs and schedule a meeting with Dr. Howard to go over that proposal in person. If you have any questions about this policy, please reach out to the Product Developers and Dr. Howard. There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking about the use of AI in our projects. However, using generative AI in a way that goes against this policy without having asked prior is against our collective policy. By no means is AI a necessary or desired tool to be used in our projects, but if you choose to do so, it is important that you adhere to this policy, by writing a proposal for AI use that you will submit to the PDs for approval by Dr. Howard