Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools include ChatGPT and Google Bard, among others, and they are changing the way we produce text, images, or other media in response to prompts.

Whilst they hold the prospect of significantly increasing productivity levels, the currently available AI tools have been shown to also produce incorrect or misleading material and may not have access to the most recent developments in your field of knowledge to include in their outputs. AI tools may be unable to correctly reference their statements and may replicate the biases, prejudices, discrimination, and inaccuracies inherent in the internet source material they use.

We recognise the importance of you developing your understanding and skills in using AI for your future careers, so we are currently reviewing our curricula to provide opportunities for you to engage with the use of generative AI in a constructive and critical way.

The use of AI in assignments

Assignments are designed to assess high-level skills, such as critical thinking and application of knowledge. Using AI to complete an assignment could undermine your learning as you prepare the assignment. Therefore, unless generative AI use is specifically specified in the assignment instructions, the use of AI tools can amount to an assessment offense.

If use of an AI tool is permitted and/or required in the description of the assignment, you should clearly state in your submission which AI tool has been used and how it has been used. If there is no specific permission to use AI to generate part of an assignment, you should not use it.

We have updated our academic misconduct regulations to extend the definition of the offence of commissioning:

‘Requesting or engaging another person or artificial intelligence tool (whether paid or unpaid) to write or rewrite work in order to obtain an unfair advantage for oneself. This would include the use of software designed to generate responses, third parties such as family, friends, students, providers of essay writing services or providers of proofreading services not authorised by the institution.’