Considerations for using generative AI
Here you will find recommended guidelines for the use of generative AI in education at KTH. The five guidelines are based on legal requirements and ethical approaches, inspired by, among other things, the guidelines from DIGG (the Swedish Agency for Digital Government).
Guidelines
These guidelines should form the basis for all use of generative AI in education at KTH. The guidelines are based on legal requirements, ethical approaches at KTH and ethical recommendations from DIGG and the European Commission. You can find more information and links to this after the guidelines, under the heading "Inspiration for the guidelines".
More details on how to meet these guidelines can be found under the following headings.
1. Only use generative AI when relevant and appropriate
Before you start using generative AI, you should ask yourself the most basic question ("Question zero"): what are you really trying to accomplish? And as a follow-up question: is generative AI the best way to achieve what you're trying to accomplish?
Choose from other tools
Only use generative AI when generative AI is needed. There are many other tools that can be more suitable and energy-efficient for specific tasks.
For example:
- Search engines.
- Existing templates.
- Spell checker.
- Image banks.
Weigh desired effects against potential undesirables
Consider the potentially undesirable effects that may result from using generative and weigh them against the positive, desired effects.
Examples of possible undesirable effects:
- Reduced collaboration with colleagues as generative AI is used as a sounding board instead.
- That your unique way of expressing yourself is washed out of your texts.
Assess the impact on learning
You need to assess how the possible use of generative AI in your course can affect learning and thus the fulfilment of the intended learning outcomes. Based on this, write course-specific information aimed at the students about the acceptable use of generative AI, read more on the page KTH's templates for course-specific information on generative AI .
Tip! Encourage students to use generative AI in the same way as they are allowed to do in exams, so they are properly prepared.
2. Have a human-centric and respectful approach to generative AI
You should take a human-centric approach to generative AI, that is, you use generative AI so that you respect the identity, privacy, and dignity of people. In education, this means, among other things, what is covered under the following headings.
Ensure students retain and develop skills
Generative AI can perform tasks that students would otherwise need to develop skills to complete, which may put them at a disadvantage in the future. Ensure that students are given the opportunity to practice the skills that generative AI performs for them.
Examples of skills:
- To develop your own voice in writing by writing without AI.
- Setting up and solving problems on your own.
- Picking out what is important enough to include in a summary.
Fair treatment and equal opportunities
Different versions of generative AI tools can produce different results. There is a particularly big difference between free and paid versions, which can lead to students who can afford to pay for the license getting an unfair advantage. You should do what you can to give all students an equal opportunity to use generative AI tools in your course.
Examples of ways to get fairer use:
- Only allow the use of generative AI for tasks where the versions produce similar results or don't have a major impact on the end result. Like the translation of single sentences or other simple tasks.
- Specify which versions of generative AI tools are allowed to be used.
- Give access to the paid version of a generative AI tool to everyone in the course. For example, one license per student or have a few licenses that students can borrow when needed.
Listen to and involve the students
Give students the opportunity to influence what is considered acceptable use of generative AI in the course. Students have different perspectives and opinions that can give you new insights and students are more likely to follow rules they have been allowed to influence.
How you can do this is handled on the page How to talk to your students about generative AI .
3. Work critically and with human review (“human-in-the-loop")
If you use a generative AI tool, you should use it as an assistant that supports you in your work, not as an expert on any topic. The tool may be missing important details or creating false information (called "hallucinating"). You are the one responsible for all decisions and assessments of what is appropriate and correct, and you also have empathy and social skills that the tool lacks.
For example:
- Include diversity and different points of view in your prompt (instruction).
- Always end with human review and correction of the result. For example, correct:
- misinformation (hallucinations)
- prejudice
- distortion of facts.
Tip! Feel free to edit the AI-generated result to put your spin on it, for example to get your voice into a text. It also helps you meet certain legal requirements, read more on the page Legal aspects of generative AI .
4. Take GDPR and copyright into account
GDPR and copyright are two laws that directly affect what you are allowed to include in your prompt to a generative AI tool. The following two lists explain how to most easily take GDPR and copyright into account when using generative AI.
GDPR:
- Remove all personal data from the material you provide to the generative AI tool and ask your students to do the same. What is actually meant by personal data? (imy.se) .
- Make sure that you have set up so that your material is not used for training the tool. For ChatGPT, for example, you can find how to do it in their FAQ: How do I stop my chats from training ChatGPT? (help.openai.com) .
Copyright:
- Material created by generative AI is not copyrighted.
- Avoid creating material that may infringe copyright. For example, by avoiding creating images in a specific artist's style.
- Exclude copyrighted material from your prompts or get permission from the copyright owner before using it.
More details can be found on page Legal aspects of generative AI .
5. Be transparent about how you use generative AI
Tell us when you use generative AI in your own material, preferably also how and why. This way, you show your students how to use AI in an honest way and you also build trust with students and colleagues.
Also be open about when you intend to use generative AI on the students' material and give them the opportunity to refrain from using it. A student should be able to refrain from using generative AI without it affecting their grade, except if the use of generative AI is mandatory to complete the course.
Inspiration for the guidelines
We have adapted existing legal and ethical guidelines to better suit a teacher at KTH. We have used:
- Guidelines for generative AI in public administration (Swedish, digg.se) .
- Ethical guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence and data in teaching and learning for educators (education.ec.europa.eu) .