Artificial intelligence in writing assignments
How should you use AI tools to help you learn in the best possible way? What challenges related to AI tools should you be aware of?
The ability to think independently is important in academia, and can be limited by the over-active use of generative artificial intelligence (AI). Be aware of when and how you use artificial intelligence in your assignment writing. We provide some examples of how you might use AI tools.
What specific AI tools can be used will depend on the guidelines set by the individual study programme. Always read the assignment text carefully.
Use of AI-generated text
Chatbots generate text based on algorithms and statistical probabilities. They do not consider what is accurate or true, so the text may contain errors and misleading or biased information.
Please be aware of the following:
- Bias: AI is not objective. AI can reproduce biases if the model is trained on data that is value-laden, incomplete, unreliable, or incorrect.
- Fabrication: Generative AI tools are known to hallucinate and invent things, including sources. If it turns out that the sources exist, it does not mean that the content you are presented with is from that source.
- Lack of timeliness: Many AI tools are not updated with new information. This is especially true for free tools.
- Technical terminology: When technical terms are translated from English to Norwegian, the meaning can both change and become incorrect.
Make sure you have sufficient background knowledge and be critical of sources.
Chatbots should not be used as a source, even if the text seems convincing. Using generative AI tools requires you to have a certain level of expertise to be able to determine whether the generated text is true and/or relevant.
You must therefore always check/compare the content against reliable and academic sources.
Using generative AI
Generative AI can be used as a tool or assistant in the learning process.
It is only through writing yourself that you can further develop your writing skills.
Learning partner
You can use AI as a discussion partner at the start of an assignment for inspiration, or to get an overview of a new topic, theory or concept.
AI can be a good learning partner, for example through:
- Asking for clarification or different points of view on a topic.
- Summarizing and asking questions about a text
- Developing knowledge by asking and reflecting together
- Testing yourself on learning material
- Providing good explanations and examples that can expand your understanding of the subject matter
- Simplifying or narrowing down a problem
Remember: AI tools have their limitations and cannot assess what is true or false.
Writing assistant
As a writing assistant, AI can:
- Proofread your text, with regard to spelling and grammar
- Give feedback on content and structure
- Create a proposal for an outline
- Translate text from another language (NB! Check with your lecturer, and do not paste translated text into your submissions)
More about AI and proofreading further down the page.
Search assistant
As a search assistant, AI can:
- generate multiple search terms based on a prompt, which you can use to search for verifiable reliable sources in search engines such as Google Scholar and scholarly databases.
Remember: AI is known to hallucinate and can invent sources that do not exist.
An example of a recommended AI search tool is Keenious.
Unlike generative tools like ChatGPT and Copilot, Keenious is a tool that recommends existing scientific articles taken from the OpenAlex database.
Programming
- AI can help with program codes or formulas (Python, excel, etc.)
Using AI as a source?
- You cannot use AI as a source for a claim, factual information or the like.
- AI is not a verifiable source.
- You are also not allowed to copy the answers into your own text. You must never present other people's texts as if they were your own. Transcription or copying of text without citing the source in the text is considered plagiarism.
Remember: AI is known to hallucinate and can invent sources that do not exist.
Help with creating summaries?
You can ask AI to create summaries and simplify extensive and complex texts.
A language model produces text without understanding the content, and can therefore in practice only shorten the original text. You cannot therefore rely on whether the most important thing is included or whether the author's message is correctly summarized. Therefore, always read the entire text so that you know what it is about to check whether the summary is correct.
Remember: if you always use AI to create summaries, you will not develop skills in reading academic texts or writing your own summaries.
Can I paste or upload other people's texts?
You must be careful about entering your own or other people's text into commercial chatbots such as ChatGPT, both in terms of copyright, privacy and the text being stored and used for further training of the AI model.
For this reason, we recommend the AI tools GPT UiO or Sikt KI-chat, where pasted or uploaded text is not stored or made available to others.
GPT UiO and Sikt KI-chat are approved for green and yellow data. More about green and yellow data.
AI for proofreading?
AI can be used to correct typos and grammatical errors.
Remember: You should consider all suggestions and adapt them to fit your assignment and your writing style.
The final text and responsibility for the content always lies with you as a student. As a student, you are expected to produce an independent academic text.
Also, don't forget that AI tools can generate text with incorrect use of linguistic terms.
The content on this page is based on INN University's regulations regarding cheating and plagiarism.
Resources
Recommended resources on how to write references and citations to chatbots and other AI tools: