Artificial intelligence tools

Gen AI writing tools work on language prediction model; they cannot think for themselves. This means that the tool might write a very plausible answer with correct spelling and grammar and present it as a ‘fact’, but it may be untrue or biased. So, if you rely on a Gen AI tool, you risk using and repeating untrue or biased information. As with other kinds of information from the internet it is essential to think carefully about where the information has come from and seek other reliable sources to fact check. There is also growing evidence that overreliance on GenAI tools can lead to loss of skills and missed opportunities to learn.

There are several ethical issues with AI content generation tools. These include:

• While the companies behind the most popular Gen AI tools are not open about the environmental impact of their tools, there is growing evidence that they require significant energy and water in comparison to, say, a Google search.
• Due to bias in its training and the way it was trained, Gen AI tools do not always provide ethical, unbiased answers and can provide answers which perpetuate bias and discrimination, e.g. cultural, racial, gender.
• Because of these biases in the data, Gen AI tools can provide answers which perpetuate racism, sexism, ableism, and other harmful forms of discrimination.
• Media reports suggest that the labour practices of the companies that develop these tools can be problematic, using exploitative and traumatic labour practices in the Global South to provide human checking for harmful content. It is also worth bearing in mind that when you use the free version of these tools you are providing unpaid labour to the company which will use your input to further train the tool and respond to others.
• Gen AI tools are trained using vast amounts of data sourced from the internet, some of which is copyrighted. Many artists and authors consider this theft. Furthermore, these tools can imitate the work of these artists, further impacting on their reputations and livelihoods.

Your assessments are required to be solely your own work, or in the case of group work, solely the work of your group. They are a means for you to demonstrate what you have learned. Submitting work which is not your own is plagiarism and falsification i.e. cheating.

The Edinburgh Napier University Academic Regulations clearly state that submitting work which is not your own is academic misconduct and a form of cheating. The penalties imposed for academic misconduct reflect the seriousness of this conduct. Being found to have committed academic misconduct has potentially severe consequences for your studies and future employment.

If you do plan to use an Gen AI content generation tool to develop your assessment, you should contact your module leader to find out what, if any, evidence of this use should be submitted with your assignment use is allowed. Most online assessments now require you to submit a declaration which allows you to acknowledge and detail any use of GenAI tools. You should seek the guidance of your module leader for all assessment submissions, including online exams and coursework. You must make sure that you comply with the guidance from your module leader and keep a record of the guidance you receive.

Contact your module leader if you are unsure whether you are permitted to use any Gen AI tools in your submission.

If you are under pressure with an assessment and are thinking about using an Gen AI tool to do it for you, there are other means of support including:

• Your Module Leader, Module tutors or Programme Leader
• Your Personal Development Tutor
• Academic Skills team
• Wellbeing and Inclusion Team
• ENSA Academic Misconduct Advice

They can discuss your circumstances and advise you on how best to move forward with your studies without reverting to academic misconduct that may impact on your future studies and employability.

There is potential for Gen AI to support your learning. For example, you might use them:

• As a starting point for research or helping understanding in the same way that you might use a search engine (although bear in mind that, as with other information found on the internet, the answers provided by Gen AI tool may be untrue).
• To develop your questions about a topic, refining your questions to focus more on the topic and developing your critical thinking in the process.

If you choose to use such a tool:

• Remember to check that you are comfortable with the terms and conditions before you do so (e.g., are you happy that your personal data might be shared or sold to others?).
• Be aware that the tool may give you answers which are incorrect, illogical and / or biased. You will need to use other sources and your own understanding of a topic to confirm the accuracy of any information provided.
• Follow the correct citation and referencing for your school to acknowledge non-Gen AI sources of information which you use in your submission.
• Ensure that you clearly identify any work in an assessment which is not your own work e.g. if you ask questions of a Gen AI tool and use the answers, then this would not be wholly your own work and should be identified and acknowledged appropriately. Seek advice from your module leader on how this should be done for your assessment. Be prepared to provide a copy of your AI conversation as an appendix.

We provide students with engaging, real-world learning opportunities to equip you for lives and careers in a global digital world. Gen AI and other forms of artificial intelligence are already a part the workplace. This is why we encourage you to think critically about the implications of digital tools for your studies, your current learning and your future lives.

We also recognise the potential for these tools to empower you in your own learning and, when used responsibility, make learning more inclusive and accessible. We aim to provide every student with the support to engage with a range of learning opportunities during your studies, thereby reducing the likelihood of any student choosing to miss out on the learning involved in creating your own work for assessments and instead submitting the output of Gen AI. We have been actively engaged in gathering students' opinions on Gen AI since 2023, and will continue to do so, using this evidence to inform our guidance.

Edinburgh Napier University’s position statement on Gen AI outlines our shared commitment to ethical and responsible use. Student responsibilities are outlined below, but you can read the full document for details on the responsibilities of the University Leadership, academic staff, professional services staff etc.

Our Collective Responsibilities

• We all are responsible for understanding the ethical implications of Gen AI, including its impacts on academic integrity, personal and institutional data, misinformation, bias, copyright, equity, and the environment.
• Staff and students are expected to declare when they directly use AI-generated content.
• DLTE provides support and training in Gen AI for staff and students, and we should all maintain a level of critical awareness to make informed decisions about its use.
• Anyone processing personal data on behalf of the University is required to comply with the University Data Protection Policy when using any Gen AI tools.

Students’ Responsibilities (Undergraduate and Taught Postgraduate)

• You have a personal responsibility to think critically about the ethical implications of Gen AI as part of your learning, including its environmental impact, bias, misinformation, and data privacy. Engage with MyNapier’s Artificial intelligence tools pages.
• You are responsible for ensuring your work reflects your own thinking, skills, and understanding.
• If you use Gen AI tools in your learning or assessments, you must follow university guidance and acknowledge AI-generated content.
• Misrepresenting AI-generated work as your own is academic misconduct and may result in an academic integrity investigation. The outcome of such an investigation may have significant implications for your future studies and negatively impact your personal development and future career prospects.
• You should be familiar with the Academic Integrity Regulations and Student Charter and Student Professional Standards[1].
• If you are unsure about permissible use of Gen AI in your assessments, check the Assessment Brief and ask your module leader/tutor.
• If you are under pressure trying to complete an assessment and are thinking about inappropriately using an Gen AI tool to do it for you, you should avoid this and seek out other means of support, including your module leader/tutor, your PDT, the Academic Skills team, Wellbeing and Inclusion Team, ENSA.

Students’ Responsibilities (Postgraduate Research)

• Postgraduate research is founded on the three pillars of independence, originality and significance. Ensure that any use of Gen AI in your studies does not compromise your ability to undertake research that achieves these three pillars.
• Share your research writing with your supervisors regularly during your studies and always discuss any intended use of Gen AI with them first.
• You have a personal and professional responsibility as a researcher to think critically about the ethical implications of Gen AI use in research, including its environmental impact, bias, misinformation, and data privacy.
• Misrepresenting AI-generated work as your own is academic misconduct and may result in an academic integrity investigation. The outcome of such an investigation may have significant implications for your future studies and negatively impact your personal development and future career prospects.
• Any use of Gen AI in the process and writing-up of your research should be clearly acknowledged.
• Your final thesis should be your own work, not AI-generated content.

[1] The Student Charter and Student Professional Standards will be replaced by a new document for 2025/26.

With Gen AI tools such as Chat-GPT widely available and expected to continue to develop quickly, as will our societal and legal responses to the technology. The below guidance is based on current, available technologies. Many of the points below are prompts to think, not hard and fast rules.

Points of Consideration

1. Postgraduate research at the University is founded on three golden pillars: independence, originality and significance. When using Gen AI tools, consider:
   
   1. Can Gen AI produced text ever be considered original?
   2. If an algorithm is producing the text, in what sense could you claim to have produced it independently?
   3. And if the work is not original, how does it contribute significantly to knowledge?
      
      
2. Gen AI tools, like ChatGPT, work by analysing material to predict and generate content based on prompts. They do not create new ideas, but rely on patterns in pre-existing data.
   
   Therefore their limitations are:
   
   1. These tools are not designed to generate genuinely new ideas
   2. As postgraduate research requires the development of new ideas, the use of Gen AI models as tools for this purpose is limited.
      
      
3. The current UK laws governing copyright do not fully address Gen AI, which creates legal uncertainty. As Gen AI models often rely on copyrighted works:
   
   
   
   1. Outputs from Gen AI will constitute plagiarism, even where it is not directly copied.
   2. Use of such content in your thesis may constitute plagiarism.

    

4. All of our research postgraduate degrees (excluding MRes) are examined by viva voce.
   
   
   
   1. Significant use of Gen AI produced text runs the risk of entering an examination without a solid understanding of the material in your own thesis.
   2. This could lead to a fail, whether or not plagiarism can be demonstrated.

    

5. Gen AI tools can support research for gathering information and brainstorming, and while the results may look different to those produced by conventional search engines, they are no more ‘intelligent’, original or accurate. Despite the term ‘artificial intelligence’, these technologies are not capable of thought in the sense that we expect it to be demonstrated in your work.
   
   Put simply:
   1. While Gen AI models may be able to help you find potentially relevant information, provide a prompt for thought or guidance,
   2. They cannot do the work of critical thinking for you.
      
      
6. All RPG students are expected to meet regularly with their supervisors and:

1. Share their writing throughout their studies.
2. Discuss any intended use of Gen AI with supervisors early So your supervisors can provide advice and guidance.

Guidance

If you choose to use Generative AI tools to assist in any stage of your research, you must follow the below guidance.

1. Appropriately cite any text or output generated by AI in your thesis, as you would any other sources.
2. Clearly indicate where in AI-generated material is included your thesis. Options include a narrative account in your introduction or a detailed appendix.
3. Gen AI tools have limitations; always use them in conjunction with other sources to ensure the credibility and reliability of the information you present.
4. Ensure the final product is your own work, and not copied from an Gen AI tool, like Chat GPT. You may use generated text as a prompt for inspiration or guidance, but the final submitted assessment must be your work, your creation, and your own analysis.

Statement of Generative AI Use

In addition to the optional inclusion of a reflective narrative of the use of Gen AI as suggested above, all students are required to make a declaration of their use of Gen AI in their thesis, including in the course of the research reported in the thesis.

Have you utilised any generative AI tools in your thesis, including the research which forms the basis of your thesis?

YES / NO

If yes, please provide a brief account of your use of such Gen AI tools.

(The above guidance is drawn in part from guidance developed by Deakin University, Australia)