Student Guide to Generative AI

What is it good for?

• Brainstorming ideas
• Narrowing your topic ideas for a research paper and getting keywords for searching in library databases
• Explaining information in ways that are easy to understand
• Summarizing and outlining
• Asking questions (be sure to fact check the results)
• Translating text into different languages (not completely fluent in every language)
• Helping write or debug computer code

Remember, you'll always need to verify the information provided because generative AI tools will sometimes make things up (known as "hallucination.")

What is it NOT so good for?

• Library research (not yet). For now, it's best to use our Summon Quick Search, the library databases, or even Google Scholar. The source citations provided may be completely made up. You must always check each citation to make sure that the source it is referencing actually exists.
   
• Asking for any information that would have dire consequences if it was incorrect (such as health, financial, legal advice, and so on). This is because of its tendency to sometimes make up answers, but still sound very confident.
   
• Solving math problems. According to Perplexity AI "...generative AI models are fundamentally designed to predict text patterns rather than understand and apply mathematical concepts." 

1. Sometimes it gets confused if you change topics in the middle of a conversation. When you want to change the subject, start a new chat.
    
2. It will remember what you've said in the course of a conversation, so you don't have to repeat everything again. Just continue like you're having a conversation with a person.
    
3. Remember, don't enter any personal, private data into generative AI tools. These tools may use your input to help improve the model. Typically, the free version of these tools can be viewed as a research experiment. If you don't want your data used to help improve the model, you can turn it off in the settings.
    
4. Don't ask generative AI tools for a list of sources. It will often make them up or provide sources that may not be appropriate for some assignments. For now, it's best to use Quick Search, library databases, or even Google Scholar.
    
5. Choose an output format. In addition to paragraphs it can give you a table, a bulleted list, ascii art, multiple choice quiz questions, emojis, computer code, and more.
    
6. Depending on the tool you are using, creating an account will allow you to see a history of your conversations. Check the settings for options to delete your history and turn off the saving of future history, get share links to conversations, and other useful features.

Adapted from Student Guide to ChatGPT by University of Arizona Libraries (Nicole Hennig, Michelle Halla, Nicole Pagowsky, and Niamh Wallace), 2025, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.