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What is AI?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is "the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings" (Copeland, 2023). Generative AI chat services like ChatGPT, GPT4, Gemini, (among others), rely on Large Language Models (LLMs). Large Language Models (LLMs) have the capacity to scan through enormous amounts of text data, mostly from the Internet. LLMs process language by "generating and classifying text, answering questions in a conversational manner, and translating text from one language to another" (Rouse, 2023). Generative AI tools like this have the are advancing rapidly before our eyes, and are increasingly able to perform sophisticated tasks.
Benefits to Using AI
AI can be beneficial to students in the following ways:
AI can be beneficial to students in the following ways:
It offers virtual tutoring with real-time feedback
It can locate research articles on specific topics
It facilitates opportunities for personalized learning
It allows for students to foster critical thinking skills
It provides differentiated instruction - (e.g., AI can help explain concepts in a new way)
Drawbacks and Concerns about AI
Drawbacks and Concerns about AI
First and foremost, please recognize that in this class, I do not allow students to use AI for any assignments in this class. This means you cannot use AI to generate quiz responses, write, or rewrite your assignments. In other words, you cannot have AI generate content for you. Doing so in this class is considered unethical and goes against SDCCD's Student Code of Conduct, which could put you in academic jeopardy. In this class, your written work will go through sophisticated AI detectors to scan for content generated by Large Language Models (LLMs). Your goal as a student should be to learn through direct engagement. Through being an active participant and taking ownership of your own research, writing, and learning, you will develop critical thinking skills. As mentioned before, AI can be an amazing tool to facilitate the research, writing, and learning process. But, using it exclusively to construct your work is detrimental to your own learning. In fact, studies have shown the AI chat services do not always provide accurate or reliable information, (even to the point of providing non-existent reference articles at times). For this reason, information you derive from AI chat-based services should be taken with a grain of salt. For more information, see this article
In this class, using AI to write or rewrite your work is not allowed. Furthermore, incorporating passages from AI without citing them properly is considered plagiarism. Papers suspected of plagiarism will receive a score of zero, and depending on the circumstance, you may not have the opportunity to rewrite them. In severe cases, plagiarism can also be reported to the school, and may come with academic or administrative sanctions. Please know that I encourage you to engage with AI, but do so with care, consideration, and acknowledgment of your usage.
The video above reveals why AI can never replace human writing. Please watch from the start (at 15:16) up until the 17:21 mark. This article provide some great strategies for using AI ethically as a study tool. In this class, it is considered plagiarism if you use AI to craft your essay. Do not do this!
But, you can effectively use AI technology to:
Explore topic ideas for a paper, and narrowing down a specific topic from a general theme
Expand your vocabulary by asking AI for synonyms for words that you tend to use repeatedly in your writing
Generate thesis statements based on your topic. (If you do this, you'll still need to rephrase in your own words and cite the AI source).
Create an outline for an essay
Create a hook sentence to draw readers into your essay. Note that AI will not be able to produce emotion, so you'll need to adjust the content accordingly. (If you do this, you'll still need to rephrase in your own words and cite the AI source).
Develop titles and captions for presentations
Making comparison lists (e.g., the pros and cons of an issue).
Using AI Responsibly and Ethically
Using AI Responsibly and Ethically
In this class, you can experiment with AI to explore brainstorm, make outlines, and solicit academic sources. It is an amazing resource that will only grow in capabilities over time. But, again - you may never use this tool for generating quiz responses, writing, or rewriting your assignments in this class. If use use AI for brainstroming, making outlines, or soliciting academic sources, you must do so ethically and responsibly. For example, it is important to verify and double check any information they provide for accuracy, reliability, and academic quality. Although this technology is rapidly becoming more and more sophisticated, it is far from perfect. Any information you receive from AI should be fact checked.
In the extremely rare case that you do want to incorporate information from AI, is essential to enclose the information in quotation marks and cite the resource that you use with in-text citations and references. AI should never be used to generate quiz responses, write, or re-write your work. Instead, you can use it as a brainstorming or outlining tools, and as a starting point to complete assignments.
The Importance of Using Your Own Voice
The Importance of Using Your Own Voice
We all have a unique writing style. Robert Lee Brewer (2021) of Writer's Digest notes that "there is only one true way to develop your natural voice, and that is to practice writing" (para. 3). Many of you will be writing regularly throughout your lives, whether in personal contexts, careers, and additional higher education. For this reason, it is critical to be honest about who you are in your writing. When you write to find your own authentic voice - this helps you discover who you are & why you are unique! So, use your experience to guide your writing - not just AI technology. I want to know what you think :)
Citing AI in APA style
Citing AI in APA style
Again, in this class, it would be a very rare situation where I would allow you to cite AI. If a situation where you hope to use information from AI arises, it is critical to clear this with me beforehand. But, let's say you have my approval to use a line from AI. In that case, how would you cite AI? If you use a generative AI resource like ChatGPT, GPT4, Gemini, (or the many other chat based resources out there), you must acknowledge that you've used artificial intelligence as a source, just like you would do if you take ideas from a book, an online article, or an academic journal. Experts are still in the process of developing rules for citing AI. Because this technology is rapidly evolving, we may see changes in the future.
General AI Citation Overview
General AI Citation Overview
For now, a general rule of thumb is to cite the developer as the author and the AI chat service as the title. For example, OpenAI is the American research laboratory that created both ChatGPT and GPT4 ("OpenAI", 2023). Google is the multinational technology company that created Bard ("Bard (chatbot)", 2023). So, if using ChatGPT or GPT4, you would cite OpenAI as the developer. And, if using Gemini, you would cite Google as the developer. If you are using a different generative AI platform altogether, you would cite their developer.
This means that you would list chat services, (like ChatGPT, GPT4, and Bard), as titles in your citation. See the passage below for more information.
Example of In-Text Citation for Direct Quote
Example of In-Text Citation for Direct Quote
You decide to begin your essay with your own words, but you want to incorporate a quote from ChatGPT afterward. Here is an example of an opening paragraph to an essay where a direct quote from ChatGPT is cited properly:
Learning the rules of APA style can feel daunting at first. But, with a quick lesson, we can master the process. To learn more about this, I inquired with an AI chat service to expand my understanding. Upon prompting ChatGPT by asking, “how do I cite my essay in APA style?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that "citing your essay in APA style involves proper attribution to the sources you've used in your research" (OpenAI, 2023). In other words, you must give credit to the author of the original source. This helps you avoid plagiarism.
Let's say that later in the essay, you want to summarize some ideas from the following passage from ChatGPT, but you are not using a direct quote from the chat:
In this case, you can write a passage like this, for example:
The citation format you use for APA style depends on the type of source. For example, you wouldn't cite a print book the same way that you cite an online article (OpenAI, 2023). Furthermore, you would cite a source by one author differently than you would if multiple authors created the piece (OpenAI, 2023). It is important to be mindful of these different rules to ensure accuracy.
In both cases, you must cite the developer of the AI chat service in parentheses after you directly quote or paraphrase the information. Unlike other sources, when citing AI chat services, you do not need to list the paragraph number for direct quotes. Listing the developer and year, (with a comma in between) in parentheses will suffice.
Creating Prompts in AI Chats
Creating Prompts in AI Chats
Just like with traditional sources like books and articles, you must cite AI with both in-text citations and references.
So for example, let's say that you are writing an academic essay about how to properly create APA citations. To get started, you prompt ChatGPT to respond by asking the following question:
You receive the following response from ChatGPT:
Components of the Reference Entry
Components of the Reference Entry
In your reference entry, you list the following components:
Author: The developer (e.g. - OpenAI)
Date: The year in which you accessed the AI chat service (e.g. - 2023)
Title: The AI chat service (e.g. ChatGPT)
Bracketed Text: This provides an additional descriptor of what is being cited. Since ChatGPT is a Large Language Model, you would list this here
Version #: The version of the chat service you are using. Here, you can either list the specific date (e.g. - Aug 13 version) or note the version provided at the top of the page (Version 3.5)
Source: For ChatGPT, this is simply the website address where you have the chat
Example of Reference Entries
Example of Reference Entries
For your reference list at the end of the paper, your citation entry should following this format:
Developer. (Year). Title (Month Day version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Aug 13 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com
Alternately, you can also cite in this format:
Developer. (Year). Title (Version #) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Version 3.5) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com
Class AI Policy: AI should never be used in this class for writing or image generation:
This policy applies to all assignments in this class. If you must use AI, do so ONLY for research and brainstorming - and do so in moderation. Never use AI to write or re-write your work in this class, or to product visual images. Furthermore, do not rely exclusively on AI tools for research and brainstorming. Always use sociological insights from course textbook, supplemental readings, or lecture videos as your first points of reference. Base your assignments on your own knowledge, life experiences, and unique voice. I want to know what YOU think! Therefore, you should never use AI as a writing tool in this class. AI can never replace the value of your unique insights.
It is never acceptable to use AI technology to plagiarize. In other words, you should never take AI responses as your own, as if you had written the content. In this class, I use plagiarism checking tools to screen for AI-generated content. Students whose writing is flagged for likely usage of AI will receive a zero on their assignment and be asked to describe their writing process and resubmit in their own authentic voice. Using AI to plagiarize goes against SDCCD's Student Code of Conduct and qualifies as academic dishonesty. This practice is unethical and violates academic integrity and could put your educational goals in jeopardy. Beyond this, you will learn much more on your educational journey if you use AI only as a brainstorming and research tool to help your understanding. AI should not be used to replace your own unique voice and written word.
Do not assume that AI responses are accurate. AI can generate false, incomplete, or insufficient results. Learn best practices for using AI and continuously refine your prompts for better results.
If you choose to use AI to brainstorm or conduct research for assignments, do so very sparingly, if at all. Cite academic sources directly instead of AI. Be sure to use clarity, be concise, and maintain awareness of your audience.
References
References
Brewer, R.L. (2021, December 31). How do I find my voice in writing? Writer's Digest. https://www.writersdigest.com/be-inspired/how-do-i-find-my-voice-in-writing
Copeland, B.J. (2023, August 10). Artificial intelligence. In Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/technology/artificial-intelligence
Gemini (chatbot). (2024, April 3). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(chatbot)
Rouse, M. (2023, July 28). Large Language Model (LLM). Techopedia. Retrieved from https://www.techopedia.com/definition/34948/large-language-model-llm
OpenAI. (2023, August 9). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAI
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Aug 13 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com
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