Learning Objectives
After completing this module, you will be able to:
Identify ethical uses of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in academic work
Craft an effective prompt to assist in your research process
Understand the impact using AI has on bias, copyright violations, societal issues, and more
Correctly cite use of AI tools
These resources and tips can give you a better understanding of how artificial intelligence tools can be used in your academic research. Use these tools responsibly, ethically and under the guidance of your instructor to ensure compliance with CCAC's Academic Integrity policy. Used effectively, AI tools can help with your understanding of a subject and shouldn't be used as a shortcut to completing your assignments.
Click each item's “Access” button to open and view it in a new window. If you are off-campus, you will be taken to the CCAC login page to sign in.
Tutorials will have navigation links across the top that you will use to advance through the pages. They
will look similar to this:
After completing the tutorial, close the browser tab or window to return back to this page.
AI generators collate a response based on your prompt. The output can be impressive, but it is based on an analysis of words and phrases found throughout websites and then generated based on the prompt. Results can be inaccurate, nonsensical, biased and lack any supporting resources. Make certain to check the output!
Brainstorming & search terms
Generating outlines
Focusing a topic
Understanding difficult subjects
Writing an essay or speech
Providing references
Verifiable information
Unbiased perspectives
Smart Student: Here's What AI is Doing to Your Critical Thinking Skills
An AI prompt is a specific instruction you give a powerful computer program, like telling a barista your coffee order. The clearer your prompt, the better the AI understands what you want it to do, like write an essay or translate a text.
"AI Prompt Definition." Google Gemini, 8 May 2024.
Define the goal: Identify the purpose of the prompt and what the output should be.
Be specific: Include precise instructions and keywords or phrases.
Stay concise: Keep each prompt short, but continue the conversation with follow up prompts.
Provide the output: Define what you want: an outline, list of terms, or a short paragraph of ideas.
A series of prompts can be a conversation with the AI tool. This back-and-forth chat allows you to give directions and then build on ideas, refining each step as you progress through the interaction.
If you're using AI tools for any of your research, you should include that in your citations, just like you would any other source. Even if you are using AI to help with a draft or outline, you'll want to acknowledge that with a sentence at the beginning or end of the paper that says something like, "This paper was produced with drafting support from Google Gemini AI." Your instructor might have specific conventions for how they would like to list this as well, so it is always best practice to check in with them!
"Prompt text" prompt. AI tool, version of tool, company that made the tool, date text was generated. URL.
Company that made the tool (date text was generated). AI tool (version of tool) [Large language model]. URL.
In Chicago, you'll cite generative AI differently depending on whether or not you included the prompt in the text of your paper. If you included it in your paper, you don't need to repeat it in the citation.
Prompt already included in paper:
1. Text generated by [name of the AI tool], date, Company that made the tool, URL.
Prompt not yet included in paper:
1. [Name of the AI tool], response to "prompt," date text was generated, Company that made the tool, URL.
Content adapted from University of Maryland: AI & Information Literacy, Cite Correctly
Gemini
Created by Google, Gemini has multimodal capabilities across text, images, audio, video and code.
Copilot
Developed by Microsoft, Copilot can assist with various tasks and integrate with the Office suite.
ChatGPT
Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT 3.5 can generate conversations based on the prompts on any topic.
Perplexity
Created by Anthropic, Perplexity is a cross between an AI generator and a search engine; it will respond to prompts and provide links to the websites or other sources it used to answer your question
