AI and Academic Use

Welcome to your guide on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Academic Use. This guide is curated by librarians across multiple divisions of the UCSB Library and will evolve as best practices and policies about these tools develop. Through the lens of Library and Information Science, this resource is meant to advance your AI literacy skills, including how to evaluate AI tools and how to safely and responsibly use them in your work.

On the Home page, you find a menu for you to navigate between topics that will provide you with information on how to use GenAI as a tool in your academic research, AI terminology, ethical concerns, and academic policy. For those brand new to AI, be sure to take a glance at the Introduction to AI page for short videos explaining AI and Generative AI (GenAI) along with other primers on the topic!

Remember, this information is provided to help inform you, and your librarians are here to assist you. You are encouraged to reach out to your subject librarian to discuss your AI Literacy questions. If you have any questions or suggestions related to this guide, please contact teaching&learning@library.ucsb.edu. 

This guide is intended to serve multiple communities on the UCSB campus. To help our users locate the content most relevant to them, we will label the appropriate content when it is more specific to students, instructors, and researchers. We define these further below. 

Students

"Students" is used to identify those taking courses at UCSB. This can refer to for-credit and non-credit courses, in degree programs, via PACE, or other community-facing programs where the user is a learner. 

Instructors

"Instructors" refers to faculty, lecturers, or graduate students who are teaching courses at UCSB. These individuals set policies for their students, evaluate student work, and often advise students on the appropriate use of resources and tools. 

Researchers

As librarians, we think of all library users as "researchers," regardless of whether they are undergraduate students or tenured faculty. When we don't explicitly identify "students" or "instructors," you may assume that you're part of the broader population of "researchers." 

At this time, UCSB does not have a blanket AI policy, and restrictions and allowed uses will vary from situation to situation. We have curated some policy-related resources on the Academic Policy page, and offer the following general guidance.

Coursework

Students, before using AI in your assignments, please check your syllabus for any policy your professor may have included. If you have any questions about whether your use of AI is acceptable to your professor, please check with them.

Research

Researchers, if you are considering using GenAI in your original research, please be aware that many publishers and funding agencies have policies that prohibit the use of GenAI. Please check with the appropriate organization and follow their guidance.