Generative AI: For Researchers

The University of Otago guidelines for use of AI can be found here.

Before using any AI models as part of an assignment CHECK WITH YOUR LECTURER/SUPERVISOR. Each department will have differing guidelines around its use. 

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Every Gen-AI model has their own terms of use - be sure to read through them to gain a better understanding on copyright and intellectual property considerations. The University of Adelaide has made a summary of the terms for many major AI tools. If you need clarification, reach out to your Subject Librarian or the University Copyright officer. 

Depending on your use of AI, there are some important things to consider. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and each AI model with have differing practices:

- Any of your research used as a prompt may be used to further train the AI model and it may even become part of its training data set.

- Most AI models are based outside of Aotearoa New Zealand, but your use MUST align with New Zealand laws like Copyright and Privacy. For Copyright: 

• Section 5(2) has a vague definition of authorship, including from computer generated works, however this can be interpreted in several ways.
• Also, keep in mind that this act was written prior to the AI boom and is currently in review.

- You can not rely on the Gen-AI outputs to be unique, and it may in fact be plagiarised from already copyrighted works.