AI: Student Guide to ChatGPT and Other AI Resources

Generative AI can be a valuable tool, particularly for research, study, and writing, but it's crucial to use it ethically and effectively. While it can generate text, summarize information, and help with brainstorming, it should not be used to replace critical thinking and academic integrity. By understanding its strengths and limitations, and using it as a support tool rather than a replacement for your own work, students can leverage its capabilities for academic success.

Learn what it's useful for and how to prompt effectively.

Remember to always verify the information it gives you.

See all of our FAQs about generative AI.

For more information on AI literacy, pedagogy, ideas for using AI in the classroom, and other generative AI tools, see our Campus Guide to Artificial Intelligence in Higher Ed.

Check with your instructor for each course to find out the policy on using ChatGPT and similar tools.

Remember, you'll always need to verify the information, because ChatGPT will sometimes make things up (known as "hallucinations").

What is it good for?

• Brainstorming ideas
• Narrowing your topic ideas for a research paper, and 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): You can ask a million questions without fear of being judged
• Translating text to different languages (not completely fluent in every language)
• Helping write or debug computing code

What is it not so good for?

• Library research (not yet). For now, it's best to use Library search, Library databases, or Google Scholar. See I can't find the citations that ChatGPT gave me. What should I do?

  Note: You may want to try one of these tools that summarize web search results with generative AI.

  • Perplexity AI
  • Microsoft Copilot
  • ChatGPT has a new web search feature. Click on the globe icon in the search box to activate it.

    You may also want to try one of these tools that combine generative AI with academic searching, in order to summarize and find more sources with semantic searching.

• 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.