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Student Guide to Generative AI

Basic tips and advice to consider when using generative AI tools and chatbots in an academic setting.

What is in this guide?

Student Guide to GenAI

The resources, advice, and tips provided here are for informational purposes only. You should ALWAYS check with your instructor(s) first before using any generative AI tool in your course work. 

Just the Basics...

Definitions

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI): A technology that mimics human intelligence, performing tasks such as understanding language, recognizing patterns, and making decisions.

  • Generative AI (Gen AI): A type of artificial intelligence that can create new content. 

  • Large Language Model (LLM): A computer program that analyzes large amounts of raw human-created data to the point where it can represent and recreate new data to perform a variety of tasks

    • LLMs can also be referred to as chatbots.
    • You may be familiar with models such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity.

How it Works

  • AI uses probabilities to predict the text you want it to produce(1). 
  • It is a "complex process, involving a large number of mathematical operations, carried out very quickly(2)."
  • It is "not a database full of words and sentences. Instead it is a vast network of math operations - math that defines the probabilities of which words come next(3)." 
  • "Despite its performance, AI is neither comparable nor equivalent to human intelligence: rather than truth, it aims for believability(2)."

Definitions from Code.org: Generative AI Curriculum licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
How it Works statements are from:

  1. Code.org: How Chatbots and LLMs Work (Video)
  2. Polytechnique Insights: Demystifying Generative AI (Article)
  3. Univ Arizona Libraries: The Technology Behind ChatGPT (Video Tutorial)