Before you use AI
AI can improve productivity, creativity, teaching, research, and service delivery, but it also introduces risks related to accuracy, privacy, bias, intellectual property, and compliance.
Before you use AI, ask yourself:
- Am I using an approved or institutionally supported tool? Is the tool trustworthy and secure?
- Does my prompt include internal, restricted, or critical data?
- Am I complying with university policies and applicable regulations?
- Are there any rules, policies, or restricted uses of AI for my role?
- Am I prepared to verify the output before using it?
- Would I be comfortable explaining how this output was produced?
Protecting data
The UI does not have a contract or agreement for most AI tools or services. As with any service or product without a contract or agreement, AI tools should only be used with institutional data classified as public.
When to use AI
Not all AI use cases carry the same level of risk. The examples below provide general guidance for common AI tasks. If you're using AI for coursework or research, additional expectations may apply. Always follow your instructor's guidance, research requirements, and applicable university policies.
Low Risk
Generally appropriate when using approved tools and following university guidance.
Moderate Risk
May require additional review, oversight, or consideration of privacy, intellectual property, accessibility, or compliance requirements.
High Risk
Use cases that could lead to serious legal, compliance, or ethical complications or require substantial oversight and precautions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use AI to refine something I’ve written?
Low Risk
If AI use is permitted for a task or assignment, refining your own writing is generally considered an effective and safe use of generative AI tools. It is important to review the revision to make sure AI did not change the meaning of what you were trying to say, and to follow the general guidelines and applicable policies. When entering text for this purpose, remove any identifying information that would not otherwise be publicly available.
Can I use AI to help brainstorm a list of ideas?
Low Risk
In general, this is a productive use of generative AI tools. Just make sure to follow the general guidelines and applicable policies.
Can I use AI to summarize a document?
Low Risk
Depending on the situation's specific details and the document's privacy requirements, this can be a beneficial use case for AI. This can be helpful when used to gain a general introduction to a text or subject area. Please be mindful that AI-generated summaries may not be comprehensive or fully accurate. Therefore, university users are strongly encouraged to refer to the primary documents before making any critical decisions related to the university.
Can I use AI to write an event announcement and develop event plans?
Low Risk
In general, this is a great use of generative AI tools. Just be sure that all details for your event are accurate in the final output.
Can I use AI for generated images?
Medium Risk
AI tools can be useful for generating images, but it's important to ensure that all use aligns with the university’s policy on IT Appropriate Use: Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources (Policy Manual II-19).
Additional Considerations:
- Review Usage Rights: Each AI image generation tool has its own terms and ownership agreements. These should be reviewed to confirm that the university has the appropriate rights to use the generated images as intended.
- Tools like Copilot and ChatGPT (with image generation) offer broad usage rights and are preferred for university work. You should ensure you are using your university account for Copilot and ChatGPT with these tools when using them for university related work.
- Be especially cautious with free or lesser-known tools, as their usage rights may have unclear terms or restricted usage rights. Always review their terms before use and contact the AI Support Team if you need help interpreting them.
- Ownership of AI-generated content created by UI employees as a part of their employment obligations is assigned to the University of Iowa, or to the faculty individually as a scholarly exception under the UI Copyright policy.
- Attribution: How and when to cite use of generative AI tools may not always be clear. Consider consulting University Libraries and/or your supervisor.
Can I use AI to analyze data?
Low to High Risk
This depends on data classification and the privacy protection offered by the system being used to analyze the data. (see Data Use on the AI Tools web page) As a general rule, restricted/critical data should not be entered into an AI tool unless you are certain that it will not be saved by the tool. Even when the AI system offers privacy protection, all identifying information should be removed from datasets before it is uploaded into any AI data analysis tool.
Can I use AI to analyze or combine survey responses?
Low to High Risk
This depends on data classification and the privacy protection offered by the system being used to analyze the data. Generally, restricted/critical data should not be entered into an AI tool unless you are certain that it will not be saved by the tool. (see Data Use on the AI Tools web page).
Can I use AI to write code?
Medium Risk
Some standard portions of routine code blocks can be written with AI as there are not unique techniques in these smaller code blocks, but it should not be used to write entire programs. As always, use caution when including these programming blocks and test thoroughly.
Can I use AI to summarize meetings?
High Risk
There are many complications with recording and summarizing meetings. Specific guidance will be developed and shared in the future.