Generative AI tools, like Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude or Bard, are widely used now. They draft written material and create visual images, access online resources to answer questions and generate computer code. It’s important that your education at Royal Holloway helps you to use these tools because they will be important in your future employment, and other activities.

Generative AI use has to be appropriate and critical. These tools have potential benefits but also several shortcomings. Their outputs can be factually incorrect. They may replicate and multiply the biases and prejudices that are present in internet material. They may not correctly reference the source(s) of their content. Inappropriate use of generative AI also undermines fairness in awarding marks to your work.  The computing power needed for AI has a very high energy requirement and, therefore, a very a large carbon footprint with associated issues for sustainability in the future. A good discussion, albeit from the perspective of a small group of researchers, on the potential positive and negative impacts of AI on the UN sustainable development goals can be found here. You will need to take a critical approach to the outputs of generative AI tools: this critical approach is key to all facets of a good university education, and to your future work.

Whether the use of generative AI is required, encouraged, permitted or prohibited in your studies at Royal Holloway, particularly in the preparation of assessments, will depend on the subject you are studying. You must check this in the information about each of your assessments and, if you are uncertain, please check with the member of staff who is responsible for running the assessment.