CSCI-644: Natural Language Dialogue Systems - Spring 2024

Policies

Academic Integrity

The University of Southern California is foremost a learning community committed to fostering successful scholars and researchers dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and the transmission of ideas. Academic misconduct is in contrast to the university’s mission to educate students through a broad array of first-rank academic, professional, and extracurricular programs and includes any act of dishonesty in the submission of academic work (either in draft or final form). 

This course will follow the expectations for academic integrity as stated in the USC Student Handbook. All students are expected to submit assignments that are original work and prepared specifically for the course/section in this academic term. You may not submit work written by others or “recycle” work prepared for other courses without obtaining written permission from the instructors. Students suspected of engaging in academic misconduct will be reported to the Office of Academic Integrity.

Other violations of academic misconduct include, but are not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, fabrication (e.g., falsifying data), knowingly assisting others in acts of academic dishonesty, and any act that gains or is intended to gain an unfair academic advantage.

The impact of academic dishonesty is far-reaching and is considered a serious offense against the university and could result in outcomes such as failure on the assignment, failure in the course, suspension, or even expulsion from the university.

For more information about academic integrity see the Student Handbook or the Office of Academic Integrity’s website, and university policies on Research and Scholarship Misconduct.

Using of Generative AI

Some assignments may require the use of Generative AI, such as prompt engineering using Large Language Models (LLMs) or fine-tuning these models. Using LLMs to build dialogue models could also be part of a student project. In these cases, the use of Generative AI is allowed. Using Generative AI is not allowed for generating programming code. If students decide to use Generative AI for other purposes, they should be transparent about it and be aware that they will be held personally responsible for what they turn in. When in doubt about using Generative AI, students should consult with the instructors. Using Generative AI inappropriately will be construed as an academic integrity violation. See also the Using Generative AI in Research research guide.