Chat GPT - AI Literacy

Is it cheating? It depends on the context!

Academic integrity refers to maintaining a standard of honest and ethical behavior in all types of academic work. This includes things like not cheating on exams or turning in a term paper that you didn't write yourself. It also includes plagiarism, or not giving proper credit to other people's ideas or work. Please refrain from presenting AI-generated material as your own original work. While certain assignments might allow you to leverage AI to enhance your creative capabilities, it should not replace genuine creative thinking, especially in an educational setting. Whenever you incorporate content generated by AI, remember to include proper citations.

Instructors may have policies on how ChatGPT may or may not be used in your classroom assignments. If your instructor doesn't have a written policy or hasn't stated whether generative AI can be used for assignments, ask.

Tips For Talking About ChatGPT With Your Instructors:

• The best time to talk with your instructor is before you begin your assignment to avoid needing to start over if generative AI isn't allowed.
• Be specific in how you plan to use generative AI. Would you like to use ChatGPT to help brainstorm ideas or come up with a topic for your assignment? Are you using it to summarize or explain complex concepts? Or do you plan to use it for writing and editing? Be prepared that your instructor may approve some use cases but not others.
• Have a plan for giving credit. APA Style, MLA Style, and Chicago Style all have guidelines for citing generative AI. Your instructor may also ask for an appendix that includes the prompts that you provided to ChatGPT or the full transcript of your interaction.

Adapted from the University of Arizona Libraries Student Guide to ChatGPT.

Ethical Considerations:

• What skills does the assignment ask you to demonstrate? If you used AI, would it be doing the work of demonstrating those skills for you?
• AI reflects many types of cultural bias. If you are asking it to generate content for you, are you aware of the types of bias you may be replicating?
• If you are uploading materials (e.g. scholarly articles or student papers) to an AI program, are those materials copyrighted? Are you violating data privacy principles and/or FERPA?

Adapted from the Wesleyan University Library guide on ChatGPT and other Generative AI

The annual Merritt College Catalog includes a section on District Administrative Procedures, including AP 5500 (Standards of Student Conduct). One example of misconduct that might result in disciplinary action is listed as "Dishonesty such as cheating, plagiarism (including plagiarism in a student publication), forgery, alteration or misuse of college documents, records, or identification documents, or furnishing false information to the college" (section IV.A.8). Uncredited use of ChatGPT could fall under these standards. 

For additional information, check out the Peralta District Academic Senate's Academic Integrity Resources.