Generative Artificial Intelligence, or GenAI, is a type of artificial intelligence that allows machines to create new content like text, images, music, videos, code, and more, based on inputs or prompts. These GenAI systems are trained on massive data sets, learning patterns and features from existing data. When you use a GenAI tool, it analyses these data sets, and generates new content that resembles what it has learned, much like the predictive text on your phone.
The following video explains how GenAI works and some of the uses and limitations of using GenAI at university.
While GenAI can be a powerful tool, there are important considerations to keep in mind. Being able to responsibly and ethically use Generative AI is dependent on your critical evaluation skills, much like when you evaluate the results from a Google search or academic database. This means critical thinking skills are essential to evaluate what has been generated.
Accuracy and Authenticity: GenAI tools often produce content that can look or sound convincing, but may be inaccurate, misleading or completely false (often known has AI hallucinations). Always verify the generated content against reliable sources.
Bias and fairness: GenAI tools reflect the biases present in the data they were trained on. This often leads to biased or unfair outputs. It is important to be critical of the results and consider diverse perspectives.
Privacy and Security: Using GenAI tools often involves sharing data. Be mindful of what information you input as it could be added to the tool’s training data. It is also important to consider privacy or data security policies.
Copyright and Plagiarism: Generated content can often infringe on existing copyrights. You are responsible for any AI-generated content that you submit. Content not approved by the unit convener, and/or appropriately referenced, may violate the University’s Assessment Policy.
For more information, refer to GenAI at UC and GenAI and Ethical Considerations.
The tools listed below are examples of the types of tools available and are not endorsed by the University.
Type |
Purpose |
Potential student uses |
Considerations |
Examples |
Text GenAI |
Composes content from a conversational language model. |
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Image GenAI |
Creates images based on learned patterns and styles from text descriptions and prompts. |
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Code GenAI |
Generate or assist in the creation of computer code. |
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Sound GenAI |
Generates sounds, music and other auditory content.
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Video GenAI |
Uses images and text to generate video content. |
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Research discovery and explanation GenAI |
Generates content to assist the research process.
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(Copied from What is generative AI - Generative AI and Assignments - Library Guides at James Cook University (jcu.edu.au) Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International License)