Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools for writing (e.g. ChatGPT, Quillbot, Copilot, Gemini) are being increasingly used in academic and professional settings. They can be powerful tools for learning language, learning about forms of writing (genres), brainstorming, revising, and editing. But they also come with some risks. Below we list some of these risks along with suggestions for mitigating these risks.
Risk: Material you provide a GAI may be shared, leaked, or hacked.
How to minimize this risk:
- Do not put any information into genAI that could be linked to an individual person (e.g.
names, telephone numbers, email addresses, ID numbers) or information that is protected
by FERPA (e.g. data linked to students, test scores). - Before putting any information into genAI that is proprietary (information that someone
owns – like your original research or material from a published article), be sure to turn off
the default that adds the material to genAI’s repository. Here are the basic steps for
protecting material in ChatGPT (read more here):- In ChatGPT, select the three dots next to your name.
- Then select “Settings & Beta”. Next, select Data Controls.
- Finally, disable the “Chat history & training” feature.
- Cornell has partnered with Microsoft to offer Cornell students, faculty, and staff with
access to Copilot accounts that protect user information. To access this account, go to
https://copilot.microsoft.com and login using your Cornell credentials. (Warning: do not
Google “Cornell Copilot” and then enter your credentials – there are lots of phishing sites
out there trying to steal your password).
Risk: Policies related to use of genAI for writing are sometimes unclear, confusing, unstated, quickly changing, or completely undeveloped, putting you at risk of being charged with cheating.
How to minimize this risk:
- Before using genAIs for writing, find out your professor or PI’s position on it. This is important when writing seminar papers or other classroom assignments, but is even more important when writing masters theses, dissertations, co-authored papers, and other papers that are submitted outside of Cornell. To facilitate the conversation, you may present your professor with ELSO’s handout, “How genAI Is Being Used for Writing,” to discuss which uses are and are not permissible for a particular writing project or context.
- Carefully document your uses of genAI while writing so that you can provide a detailed statement of use if required.
- If you are writing for a journal, conference, or grant-funding organization, check their policies related to using and citing genAI.
- If you are using genAI for any research paper, be sure to cite it, following guidelines for the citation style you are using (here are guidelines from APA and Chicago Manual of Style).
Risk: GenAIs only generate predicted language. They do not generate fact-checked or accurate information, citations, paraphrases, or summaries.
How to minimize this risk:
- Do not trust any quoted material or citations generated by genAI. Look up the citations and quotations to see if they are real.
- Do not trust information generated by genAI. Check everything.
- If you are using genAI to paraphrase or summarize information, check it for accuracy against the original.
- If you are using genAI to revise your draft, review the revised material carefully to make sure it has not changed the meaning of your text.
Risk: genAI generates text that is written in a style that is flowery, lacking in detail, and doesn’t sound like your natural voice.
How to minimize this risk:
- Rather than ask genAI to generate a draft for you, only ask it for help when you get stuck,
such as when you are trying to identify words and phrases. - Rather than ask genAI to revise a draft for you, ask it to provide you with a list of issues
to be edited. - Rather than accept a revised draft from genAI as a final draft, compare it to your original,
identifying revisions and then deciding which revisions to incorporate into the original
draft.
Risk: Overreliance on GenAIs for writing can hamper your development as an English language user and/or writer in English.
How to minimize this risk:
- Use genAI to get feedback on particular aspects of language or style. For instance, if you
would like to become more proficient at using prepositions, ask ChatGPT to list any
potential problems with prepositions but not to comments on other aspects of your draft. - Use genAI to assist you with word choice by asking it for synonyms, asking it which
word is more often used in a particular context (e.g. research paper in biomechanics), and
asking it to give examples of the word used in sentences. - Use genAI to give you feedback on how clearly you have communicated an idea by
providing a sentence or paragraph and asking it to paraphrase or summarize it. - Use genAI to help you analyze the structure of your argument by asking it to turn a few
paragraphs into an outline.