Artificial Intelligence: Welcome

This guide has been partially developed with assistance from AI tools demonstrating responsible AI use through proper attribution and transparency.¹

About this Guide

This guide offers practical information on responsible AI use in academic contexts, including institutional policies, ethical frameworks, and best practice tips for working with AI tools. You'll find sections covering prompt engineering techniques, a curated list of AI platforms for academic use, and important guidance and legislation governing AI applications. Responsible use of generative AI also includes developing an understanding of the environmental and socioeconomic impacts that result from the use of AI tools. Use the navigation menu to explore specific topics and resources that align with your research needs.

It is the intention of this guide to provide a starting point for all members of the UCD community to find adequate support and links to training opportunities in order to foster the development of AI literacy skills as per the provisions of Article 4: AI literacy² of the EU AI Act.

For the purposes of this guide AI Literacy is understood as per the Chapter 1, Article 3: Definitions (56) of the EU AI Act: "AI literacy’ means skills, knowledge and understanding that allow providers, deployers and affected persons, taking into account their respective rights and obligations in the context of this Regulation, to make an informed deployment of AI systems, as well as to gain awareness about the opportunities and risks of AI and possible harm it can cause."³

Generative Artificial Intelligence is a disruptive technology that is causing a great deal of uncertainty and anxiety in academia.

There are effective and ethical ways in which to engage with AI that are not contrary to the principles of Academic Integrity. First and foremost, you should never rely on AI to create content for your academic work without appropriate acknowledgement (for student assignments you should seek prior approval of your module coordinator before using GenAI Tools, ref. Section 4.3, UCD Academic Integrity Policy). Module Coordinators must also provide adequate guidance for students an the use of AI for assessment within their modules (ref. Section 3.5, UCD Academic Integrity Policy). When you do use AI generated content you must acknowledge its use with proper attribution and citation. The library provides guidance on how to correctly cite and reference Generative AI in this guide as well as in each of the citation style guides available on our website.

You should also be aware that AI content is not entirely reliable. Large Language models, or LLMs, rely upon huge amounts of pre-existing data much of which contains biases, misinformation, outdated information and other types of imperfect content. The danger is that Generative AI, through regurgitation of the flawed training data can reinforce established biased narratives and amplify their effects when not evaluated correctly before reuse.

It is best to think of AI as a personal assistant. Use it to help clarify your ideas, structure your arguments and familiarise yourself with new topics. To quote Mushtaq Bilal, you want to “Outsource Academic labour to AI, not thinking”.⁴

References (Chicago, 17th):

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