Evaluative and ethical use

Using GenAI ethically

Your unit coordinator will let you know if you can use GenAI in the preparation or completion of assessment tasks. For example, some units allow the use of GenAI to understand an assessment tasks or to help with study or generating content, while others will not permit any use. For authoritative advice on using GenAI with integrity at QUT visit the Learning with Generative AI page in HiQ.

GenAI tools can assist us in our daily lives, at work, studying and many other places. As with any tool, ethical, evaluative and appropriate use is key.

QUT upholds academic integrity in the work of both staff and students and clearly states that “using artificial intelligence tools in assessment unless instructed to do so” is a breach of policy. QUT's Academic Integrity policy is included in the Manual of Policies and Procedures: Academic Integrity as well as Academic integrity and plagiarism - Student - QUT Portal. More information about the standard of behaviour expected at QUT can be found on the Code of Conduct page.

Critically evaluating AI generated content

GenAI content can be unreliable, producing content that sounds completely credible but often isn't. Many of these tools don't cite their sources, making the information provided very difficult to verify.

Using GenAI responsibly and ethically is dependent on your critical evaluation skills. It can be difficult to distinguish between content created by a human and what has been generated by an AI model. This means critical thinking skills are essential to evaluate the authenticity and accuracy of what has been generated.

When reviewing content generated by AI, you should always evaluate the output,as you would with information from a Google search or academic database. One way to do this is the CRAAP test. More information on the CRAAP test and how to use it can be found here.

Consider the factors below as you start your evaluation:

Most tools have a free basic account that can be used by anyone, but these usually come with restrictions such as limits on the number of uses within a time frame. Many tools now charge for access to the platform or to premium features. This can create barriers for those who are unable to afford these costs. Due to data security, intellectual property and privacy concerns, staff must not require students to use GenAI for learning and assessment outside of those tools provided by QUT.

Gen AI tools can generate grammatically correct sentences that sound authentic and true, by predicting the next best word based on the training data they've been given. However, it is often unknown where the data used to train generative AI has come from. As such, content from generative AI shouldn't be used as a credible and reliable source in an assignment.

Bias has been a concern in technology for a long time, and generative AI is no different. Bias can exist for many reasons, including:

People inserting their biases when they create the models
The datasets used to train models, and
Generative AI creating biases from how it interprets the data it has been trained on and the questions it is asked.

GenAI can be used to create almost anything, so it can be very tempting to use it to create your assignments at university. However, it is expected that while you are at university you are developing your own knowledge and skill set. By presenting AI-generated work as your own, you have not been able to develop and show these skills.

Like most online and digital tools, GenAI has to ability to collect and store data about its users. When signing up, users may unknowingly allow companies to collect this data if the terms and conditions are not read and understood properly. This data can then be used to further train and refine the models or in some instances sold to the highest bidder.

Evaluative and ethical use

Using GenAI ethically

Critically evaluating AI generated content

Global links and information

Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners