Generative Artificial Intelligence Guide

You should consider several things before using AI tools and the information they generate, including:

• Permission - Check with your Learning Facilitator if you are permitted to use AI tools in your assessment. Visit Torrens GenAI Guidelines for more information.
• Privacy - Consider whether the information you are providing to the AI tool would be considered private or personal information to yourself or others. Any information you enter into AI tools may be shared with third parties, so it is best to keep your input anonymous whenever possible. Refer to the Torrens Privacy Policy for further advice.
• Constant development - Keep in mind that AI is constantly evolving. Stay up to date with What’s New in Generative AI.
• Ethics - There are many ethical considerations when using AI tools. Be sure to apply Australia’s AI Ethics Principles when using these tools.

The content generated by AI tools will vary depending on your input – commonly known as 'prompts'. To get the most out of AI tools, try the following:

• Have a goal in mind - Before crafting your prompt, think about your purpose. Do you need a topic overview, a definition, a brainstorming assistant, or a fact-checker?
• Give the AI a personality - You can ask some AI tools to act in a certain way, which subtly dictate the nature of their responses. Use this to your advantage.
• Be specific - State your purpose, audience, format, limits, etc. Ambiguous input can result in unexpected or unwanted content, so the more specific you are the better.
• Keep asking questions - Don't give up if the AI tool does not respond in the way you were expecting or wanting. Instead, reword your questions, or add to your initial request to get a different response.

Generative AI tools have both strengths and weaknesses, and their usefulness depends on your purpose for engaging with them.

Strengths

• Overviews - AI tools can create summaries of a given topic area.
• Simplification - They can reframe concepts into a more digestible format using simpler language.
• Brainstorming - AI tools can come up with ideas related to your topic area.

Limitations

• Complex topics - They can often struggle with highly complex and technical topics.
• Accuracy and bias - Content generated by AI can be inaccurate or biased.
• Recency of data - AI tools may be trained with data that is outdated by the time the tool is available to use.
• Cost of access - Many AI tools require a subscription to access its more advanced features. Our GenAI Tools list outlines some of these.