How to use AI responsibly
Responsible use of AI is defined by an awareness of the ethical challenges associated with AI and how you address these challenges in your use of AI-generated content.
AI has marvellous new capabilities and has broken fundamental assumptions we have had about interactions with technology. Generative AI creates new content, which is a technology that–for the first time–shows creativity through specific algorithms (neural networks). We distinguish generative AI from traditional AI by the fact that it can produce text, images, and videos by learning patterns from extensive datasets, marking a significant shift in AI capabilities. There are many ethical considerations surrounding generative AI, such as issues of authorship and bias.
WHAT ARE THE ETHICAL PRINCIPLES THAT CAN GUIDE MY RESPONSIBLE USE OF AI?
Douglas Eacersall, a leading researcher on the responsible use of AI, recently published an article outlining seven ethical principles for the use of generative AI.
Eacersall’s seven principles are as follows:
Examine existing policy/guidelines
Examine the policies and guidelines in your own context. By familiarising yourself with these policies, you can better align your AI practices with the expectations and requirements of your professional environment, thereby promoting responsible and ethical use of AI technologies.
Think about the social impacts
Think about the social impacts of your use of AI technologies and make informed choices. These can include equitable, inclusive, and sustainable considerations.
Have knowledge of the technology
Have a good understanding of how a particular AI works, as this will help you critically evaluate the information the AI generates.
Indicate how you use the technology
Indicate how you have used AI in your work. Transparency addresses issues of authorship, copyright, and trust and credibility.
Critically assess and revise outputs
Critically engage with and revise outputs generated by AI to ensure that AI is a tool that informs and enhances your work, rather than taking over the intellectual and creative processes. This critical engagement not only improves the reliability and relevance of the AI outputs but also fosters a responsible and ethical approach to AI integration.
Access secure and protected versions
Utilise secure AI tools to address several significant issues, including copyright, intellectual property, privacy, and research integrity. Secure AI tools ensure that the data and outputs generated are protected from unauthorised access and potential breaches, safeguarding sensitive information and maintaining confidentiality. Moreover, secure tools help prevent the misuse or theft of intellectual property, ensuring that all generated content and methodologies are appropriately credited and protected under copyright laws.
Look at user agreements
Read user agreements to learn critical information about the ownership of inputs and outputs, which can affect your rights to the content you create using the AI tool. Understanding who owns the data and the resulting outputs is crucial for maintaining control over your intellectual property and ensuring that your work is not exploited without your consent. This careful scrutiny of terms and conditions helps prevent potential legal issues and enhances your ability to use AI tools responsibly and ethically, safeguarding both your work and the sensitive information involved.
KNE CLUE: HOW TO ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR USE OF AI
The above principles remind you to be E.T.H.I.C.A.L. in your use of AI, but what does this look like in practice?
As a demonstration of the potential and effectiveness of AI tools, some of the content in this article was adapted based on collaboration with AI and used in the online course Learn the Basics of AI. This was purposely done using a customised ChatGPT to show how AI can be a significant asset in productivity and creativity.
It is important, as per ethical practices,to acknowledge how generative AI was used in the creation of this content. An acknowledgement by the author should include the following information:
- A clear explanation of which AI the author used
- Details about how the AI was used
- Explanations of the prompts used
- Clarifications about how the output was adapted for use in this article
- A statement of responsibility for the final version of the text
Below is a sample acknowledgement which you can use as a template in your context.
Diving Deeper
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