FYRE (First Year Research Essentials): Using AI Tools (GenAI)

What is Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)?

The Victoria University Academic Integrity Policy defines GenAI as follows:

(8) Artificial Intelligence: Generative artificial intelligence (AI) language models (such as ChatGPT and Copilot) which respond to natural language text inputs and are designed to generate human-like responses.
VU Academic Integrity Policy s 4.
 

Can you use it?

Only use these tools if explicitly directed to do so by your VU academic as part of your learning or research experience. If in doubt, check with the relevant teaching staff member or research supervisor. 
Using these tools without permission may be considered an Academic Integrity breach.

If you can use Gen AI, you must reference the output.

'(83) Students now have access to digital tools that can support their writing, learning, work, essay scaffolding, creativity and idea generation. Examples of some of these tools are ChatGPT, GPT, DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, GitHub and Copilot. In your studies with Victoria University (VU), you may find that some assessment tasks explicitly ask you to use such tools, whereas some other assessment tasks will explicitly ask you to not use them. If your educator supports you using these digital tools, you are welcome to do so.'


Academic Integrity Guidelines s 7 (83).
https://policy.vu.edu.au/document/view.php?id=412#section7

Flowchart for deciding if you should use GenAI.

Things you need to know

GenAI tools make things up. That's their purpose. But it means you cannot rely on any material they generate to be factually correct.
-- the tendency of genAI to make up facts is often called 'hallucinating'.

You are always responsible for the work you hand in.
-- So if you your work contains AI generated errors, that's on you!

Tools can also generate offensive content, especially if used for image generation.
-- Again, any offence caused is on you! Be careful and check thoroughly before using.

If you do use any genAI tools you must disclose the fact.
-- This is part of VU's Academic Integrity Policy (part 21d). Failure to disclose the use of genAI may be considered cheating or plagiarism.
-- this includes translation tools.

Individual tutors may not allow their use in the units they teach.
-- Always check with your tutor or instructor first.
-- You may be allowed (or even expected) to use them for some tasks but not others.

Referencing

'(86) If you use generated text in your assessments (use AI to write in response to prompts), you need to acknowledge its contribution clearly in your submitted work. Without acknowledgment, your submission may be seen as a form of contract cheating leading to academic misconduct, where parts of the assessment / assignment are written by text generating software. You can avoid this in the following ways:

a.  by using quotations to identify reproduced text

b.  highlighting the sections of AI text you have not edited

c.  acknowledging your source (to do this, identify the tool and include a reference as per VU referencing style guides).'


VU Academic Integrity Guidelines s 7.
https://policy.vu.edu.au/document/view.php?id=412#major16

 

Four referencing styles are used at VU. The library has a guide for each of these styles that explains how to reference the output of GenAI.  

AGLC - GenAI
APA - GenAI
IEEE - GenAI
Oxford - GenAI

 

Make sure that you refer to the guide for the referencing style used in your unit or course.

Prompts

A prompt is a request or command, usually typed, for GenAI to produce an output or perform a task.  There are many different approaches to writing prompts.  And the form that a prompt will take may differ from one task to the next.  However, when writing a prompt it's worth considering including components such as role, task, requirements, and instructions.  Here's an example of a prompt that uses all four of those components:
 

You are an expert in legal history.  Suggest two journal articles about delicts in ancient roman law.  Only suggest articles published in the last 10 years that were written by prominent academics.  Provide an AGLC reference for each article and a brief biography for each author.

 

Role:  You are an expert in legal history.
  • Helps to determine the content and style of the response
  • E.g. Act as an expert in legal history
Task:  Suggest two journal articles about delicts in ancient roman law.
  • Be specific about what you want
  • E.g. Suggest two articles about delicts in ancient roman law
Requirements:  Only suggest articles published in the last 10 years that were written by prominent academics.
  • Limit unhelpful assumptions 
  • E.g. Articles published in the last 10 years
Instructions:  Provide an AGLC reference for each article and a brief biography for each author.
  • How to go about completing the task
  • E.g. Only include articles by prominent academics

<https://libraryguides.vu.edu.au/c.php?g=966600&p=7025553>
 

GenAI Output

 

At first glance, the output looks great.  The articles appear to be just what was requested.  However, neither of the articles exist.  

 

PROMPT given to ChatGPT
Please write a 300-word answer to the question: why are there too many doctors in regional Victoria? Please reference all sources used and provide a reference list.

 

OUTPUT from ChatGPT
The issue of too many doctors in regional Victoria can be attributed to several factors related to the distribution of healthcare resources, government policies, and changing dynamics in medical training.

One significant reason is the Australian government's policy of incentivizing healthcare professionals to practice in regional areas. Programs such as the Rural Workforce Incentive Scheme, which offer financial incentives and professional development opportunities, were designed to attract doctors to rural and regional communities. However, these incentives have sometimes led to an oversupply of doctors in areas where the population is not large enough to sustain the number of medical professionals (Garforth, 2015).

Additionally, medical training programs have increasingly focused on producing doctors who are more likely to work in rural areas. The establishment of rural clinical schools and training placements aims to address the historic shortage of doctors in regional Victoria. While these programs have successfully attracted more doctors, they have also contributed to an oversupply when the demand for healthcare services in some regions does not keep pace with the number of newly trained professionals (Wang et al., 2019).

Furthermore, some regional areas experience challenges with the geographical distribution of doctors. Despite the oversupply in certain regions, there are still areas where access to healthcare is limited. This can create a mismatch where some areas have an excess of doctors, while others face shortages due to population density, infrastructure challenges, or other barriers that make it harder to distribute healthcare workers evenly across the region (Chur-Hansen et al., 2017).

In conclusion, the oversupply of doctors in regional Victoria is a result of government incentives, changes in medical training, and uneven distribution of healthcare resources across the state.

References

Chur-Hansen, A., Turner, N., & White, L. (2017). The shortage and oversupply of medical professionals in rural Victoria. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 25(3), 168-174.

Garforth, D. (2015). Addressing the oversupply of doctors in rural areas: The Australian experience. Medical Journal of Australia, 202(8), 413-417.

Wang, X., Zheng, Y., & Lee, K. (2019). Challenges in healthcare access in regional Victoria. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 27(3), 131-137.

Summary

  • Only use GenAI if your teacher has explicitly said that you can.
  • Carefully evaluate any output from GenAI.
  • Always reference output from GenAI.
  • GenAI often hallucinates / makes things up.
  • You are responsible for the work that you hand in.

 

AI in Education for Students Library Guide

Discussion

  • What tasks might GenAI be useful for?
  • Where else might you look for quick answers to questions?
  • Teacher expectations.