Our course GenAI Policy

2. Our course GenAI Policy#

You are not to use Generative AI (Claude, ChatGPT, copilot, etc) on submitted work unless expressly permitted to do so. And when permitted, you must provide adequate citation (i.e., the entire history of prompts used). For example, if you use some AI to edit the written portion of a project, I will want to see the pre-edited version.

2.1. Consequences#

If I suspect you have improperly used generative AI on an assignment (either used genAI when not permitted or used without sufficient attribution), I will mark a grade of 0 for that assignment or project. This grade is a placeholder; you can talk to me to demonstrate your understanding of the material and/or correct and resubmit the work for a grade correction.

Repeated infractions could result in greater penalties (e.g. irreplaceable 0 on assignment, Honor Code violation, etc.)

2.2. Rule of Thumb#

Imagine that behind genAI is another student; if the kind of help you are asking for would be permissible to ask another student, then it is likely a an acceptable use of genAI.

2.3. Acceptable and unacceptable use cases#

Acceptable

  • Brainstorming or outlining projects/code

  • Simplifying or summarizing text

  • Generating practice problems or sample exam questions

Unacceptable

  • Writing significant segments of code or text for submitted assignments

  • Using assignment problems or questions directly as

  • Passing off genAI-produced work as your own without sufficient attribution

2.4. My rationale#

Generative AI can be an incredibly useful tool, both in school and in the workplace. Largely, I am a proponent for the responsible use of AI. But from my limited experience (and this opinion is likely to change over time), genAI is often used to circumvent the challenges and struggle necessary for effective learning.

Moreover, the concepts and problems we’ll tackle in this class have been tackled by millions of students, and there are thousands of examples available online. Generative AIs are trained on these examples. So genAI is not providing you novel solutions, rather it’s feeding you plagiarized work anonymized through aggregation and algorithm. You are responsible for the content of submitted work; genAI’s plagiarism is your plagiarism.

Yes, you could produce more work faster using genAI, but you will learn less.You are here to learn. And I would rather grade your imperfect work and help you progress than waste my own time reading AI-created content.