Defining AI
Through machine learning, AI is a computer "program" that imitates human like interactions. By training an AI with thousands of books and articles, most AI has encyclopedic knowledge and can answer basic questions. Most AI is also trained with large data dumps of social media to help the AI with creating something akin to natural or current language. With a series of prompts most AI is capable of creating long form answers to questions and prompts. Those long form answers may be paragraphs or entire essays. The AI is more like a narrator than it is a search engine; it responds more like an author.
Because of the training of AI it is prone to certain problems.
Most of these are called "hallucinations", but it is the AI relying on its training. "Garbage in. Garbage out."
Additionally, the AI is programmed to put words together based on probability of what should come next. It has learned what typically follows certain words or phrases. So, AI tends to be generic lifeless writing because it writes what is expected. It isn't creative with expressions.
Artificial Intelligence Generated Text
Developing technology has made Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools more readily accessible to everyone, including students. Hope International University asserts that student learning requires students to fully engage readings and other source materials, thoughtfully process the content and arguments of those sources, and construct their own evidence-based conclusions. In addition, student learning requires that the student’s analysis, evaluation, and conclusions in any academic inquiry must be articulated in the student’s own words, expressing the student’s own arguments and points of support for their conclusions. Therefore, when a student employs AI to generate written text, sequenced reasoning, invented documentation, arguments, or conclusions, the product is not the student’s own work, nor is it the product of student learning. It is instead a misuse of AI and a violation of academic integrity, subject to the consequences imposed for other violations of academic integrity published in the HIU Catalog section on Academic Integrity above.
Grammarly Education Addendum
Hope International University has subscribed to Grammarly Education for all of its students. This is a writing support tool meant to assist students in refining their writing.
Instructors should make clear that other versions of Grammarly available publicly, whether free or pay-for-service, are not acceptable because they are generative AI products. Their use will always be a misuse of AI that will be certain to result in an academic integrity violation.
Grammarly Education (GE) cannot be used by students to generate or originate text, which is misuse of AI and a violation of HIU’s academic integrity policy. To use GE properly, students should create an entire draft of their written assignment and save the draft to submit along with their finished assignment. GE must not be used to generate language, content, organization and sequencing, or argument; all of these must originate with the student. Proper use of GE is limited to refining and improving the written presentation of the student’s original work.
Recommended best practice is for instructors to make clear to their students at the very beginning of their classes what is proper use of GE and what is misuse that crosses the line into a violation of academic integrity.
For a Glossary of Terms
For More About AI
Much of this comes from: https://sites.google.com/view/practical-information-literacy/beating-ai - created by Steve Jung
On that site are links to several PowerPoints on AI.
Some PowerPoints are on how to stop students using AI, on academic integrity in light of AI, and several on possible uses of AI for students and faculty in a university.