5: Learning and Creating With AI
- Page ID
- 67040
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Generated with GPT Image 2 using Adobe Firefly
This chapter is about producing things. The preceding chapters built the vocabulary, the prompting skill, and the checking habits; this one puts them to work on the two purposes for which people most commonly reach for these tools — studying and working. The first part of this chapter covers academic and study use: planning and preparing coursework, generating study materials, presenting work that involved AI, and the integrity questions that attach to all of it. The second component covers workplace use: drafting, revising, and adapting a piece of work for different readers. The two halves share a method and differ in what is at stake, and the boundary between legitimate support and misconduct is drawn explicitly in each.
Using AI in Academic Work
There is potential for you to use Generative AI responsibly to assist you in your studies but there are also risks that you must consider when using this type of technology. When using AI tools, ethical and responsible use principles, such as transparency, privacy, academic integrity, and fairness should be considered. For more information please refer to the AI Policies section of your course syllabus.
Ways generative AI tools may help your study
Generative AI tools may be able to:
- generate quizzes or flashcards.
- recommend authoritative sources on a topic for you to follow up.
- summarize information on a topic to help you get started.
- improve your grammar, sentence construction and other language skills. Generative AI can also:
- explain the solution to different types of problems to increase your understanding e.g mathematical problems, coding errors, formulas.
- analyze data e.g. create spreadsheets, tables and organize information.
- provide creative inspiration or suggestions that you can build on.
- restore low quality images or video.
Flashcards
Flashcards are an ideal way to review before an exam, particularly for information-rich courses and disciplines. NotebookLM by Google Gemini has built in flashcard tools for study purposes. For example, since this textbook has an open license, you are free to upload it to NotebookLM for study purposes.
- Identify your source material: Are you allowed to upload it? It is not ethical to upload licensed or copyright-protected materials into AI tools that will use it for training.
- Create your prompt: Assign a role, provide enough context, set the tone.
- Evaluate the output: Does the output meet your need?
Example
You are a University tutor. Create 15-20 flashcards exploring the key concepts of Chapter 8 Probability, A Portable Introduction to Data Analysis that are suitable for a 1-st year undergraduate student. Include the correct answer on the reverse of the card. The format should be compatible with Anki.
Summarizing
AI tools can summarize text and even full papers and reports. This may be very helpful when browsing sources to identify which ones support your research. However, AI tools cannot substitute for the understanding and cognitive growth that comes from reading chosen sources carefully or synthesizing the content for yourself. Nevertheless, tools like Elicit and Perplexity can be very useful for academic research. NotebookLM by Google Gemini is also useful for reviewing and summarizing documents, and does not use uploaded materials for training purposes when you are logged in with an .edu account.
Steps
- Identify your source material: Are you allowed to upload it? It is not ethical to upload licensed or copyright-protected materials into AI tools that will use it for training.
- Create your prompt: Assign a role, provide enough context, set the tone
- Evaluate the output: Does the output meet your need
Simplifying complex problems
Steps
- Create your prompt: Assign a role, provide enough context, set the tone
- Evaluate the output: Does the output meet your need?
Example
You are a skilled teacher with a talent for breaking down complex concepts into simpler ideas. Describe the basics of string theory in a way that a first-year university student would easily grasp.
Tip
Using analogies can sometimes help build comprehension of complex topics. Try asking the tool to use an analogy to explain complex ideas.
- Explain hawking radiation core concepts using cooking analogies.
- Explain the bicameral mind using nautical examples.
Quizzing
Do you have an upcoming exam? Test your knowledge by generating quiz questions. NotebookLM by Google Gemini has built-in quizzing features to aid in learning.
Steps
- Identify your source material: Are you allowed to upload it? It is not ethical to upload licensed or copyright-protected materials into AI tools that will use it for training.
- Create your prompt: Assign a role, provide enough context, set the tone
- Evaluate the output: Does the output meet your need?
Example
Act as a university lecturer and use this file Semester_One_Examinations_2024_POLS1301.pdf, to create some practice quiz questions to help a first-year undergraduate student practice for an exam.
Risks With Using Generative AI Tools for Study
You need to consider these risks when using generative AI tools for study or work.
- Do not provide any private information when using these tools.
- Verify any information provided by generative AI tools with credible sources and check for missing information.
- Acknowledge any generative tools that you use for your assignments or work and how you used them. For example, include the name, model or version, date used and how you used it in your assignment or work.
- Be sure to check the syllabus and assignment instructions for guidance on how AI tools may be used. In the absence of specific guidelines, no AI usage is permitted for completing assignments.
- Check with your instructor if you are unsure about how you may use AI for study (not assignment completion) purposes.
- If you use AI tools and present the work as your own, you are undermining your character and integrity.
Planning and Preparing
When using AI tools to plan your research, study, or other academic work, keep accurate records about the sources of those AI generated notes or summaries, so you can reference appropriately and find original sources later. Most AI tools allow you to reference and share links to the conversation history, which you should save and include in AI disclosure forms if applicable. With those caveats understood. AI may be a useful tool for getting started on a project.
Brainstorm and generate ideas
Using AI tools to generate ideas can be a good starting point in researching for an assessment or project. Ask a Generative AI (GenAI) tool (such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or Gemini) to brainstorm ideas or use a more specific AI research tool such as SciSpace to search for key concepts or ask a research question. SciSpace will then show questions related to your initial search and insights from top papers.
Understand difficult concepts
If you’re struggling to understand a concept, GenAI tools can provide concise summaries using language that is easy to understand. Keep in mind that AI-produced summaries may not be completely accurate or contain all necessary information. Use GenAI tools such as ChatGPT for summaries, but consider the question (or prompt) you ask the tool so that you receive a useful answer. Crafting good prompts is discussed further in the section Building better prompts .
Scope the literature
Locating relevant articles with AI tools can help you start looking for literature. You can use GenAI tools such as ChatGPT, but there are also more specific AI tools such as Research Rabbit, Keenious and Semantic Scholar (see the appendix on AI tools for further suggestions). You may need to sign up for an account and always look for the free ones.
Tips on using programs and software
Ask GenAI tools for advice on how to use applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel, or generate some code. Leveraging AI tools for coding can significantly enhance productivity and accuracy.
Using AI in the Workplace
Audience, Platform, and Goal
Before drafting anything with an AI tool, three questions are worth answering: who will read this, where will they read it, and what should happen as a result? The same underlying facts require a different shape depending on the answers. Material that will be skimmed quickly needs to be short and dense; material that will be read carefully can develop an argument and connect specifics to what the reader demonstrably cares about; a brief personal message needs almost no formality at all. A common failure is to produce one version and send it everywhere, which is the main reason AI-assisted writing acquires a reputation for sounding generic and routinely reviled as "AI slop." When you are unsure what context a tool needs in order to help, there is a useful inversion: state the goal and add a request that the tool ask you what it needs to know in order to do the task well. The questions that come back are frequently ones you had not thought to answer, and answering them measurably improves the draft. Thereafter, treat the first output as a proposal rather than a product. Read it as the actual reader will read it, say specifically what is wrong, and ask for a revision. This draft–critique–revise loop is the same one introduced in Chapter 3, applied to writing rather than to reasoning.
Designing Presentations
Various presentation software and applications have already integrated AI into their interface to help enhance and deliver visually appealing presentations. There are also more specific tools you could look at, a couple of examples include:
- Tome: promotes itself as an AI storytelling tool, but it is the most effective when used to generate PowerPoint presentations. Simply enter a prompt, and Tome will generate presentation slides on your chosen topic, including text and images. Slides are editable and can be shared. The free trial has limitations and it does require fact checking for accuracy.
- Beautiful.AI: another subscription AI presentation tool, uses a back-end system called DesignerBot to create AI generated presentations that can include figures, tables, infographics, charts and other data. Mostly aimed at businesses, but can create professional looking slides for a variety of contexts. Includes a separate prompter to create AI generated images.
- Simplified’s AI Presentation Maker: handles image and content creation for any topic and the first set is free. Includes a number of other AI tools.
- Canva AI: translates conversational chat into fully editable, multi-page layouts while automating background business workflows across connected apps.
Preparing for Presentations
Instead of getting GenAI tools to create a presentation for you, consider using them to assist you in the creation process by:
- Brainstorming ideas for the content of your presentation
- Suggesting a structure or activities for your presentation to aid in engagement
- Drafting speaker notes based on slide content
- Provide feedback on the presentation. An example is PowerPoint’s Speaker Coach.
Written Reports
Providing content directly generated by AI is not ideal, even in the workplace. But there are other appropriate ways to use AI to improve your writing.
- Improve your written communication skills by refining your language and style using a tool such as Grammarly
- Generate workflow diagrams or concept illustrations using tools such as Nano Banana, Midjourney or Adobe Firefly
- Restore low quality images or upscale images, LetsEnhance is one example.
- Help analyze data by creating tables and collating information. GenAI tools can collate input data when using the right prompts. Be careful about the data you enter into a GenAI tool in terms of privacy and confidentiality!
- Check for errors or generate formulas using Copilot within Microsoft Word and Excel.
Acknowledging the use of AI generated material
At a minimum, you should include a declaration of use that explains what technologies, if any, you have used in working on your assessment.
- Describe the AI tool used.
- Note how the information was generated, including the prompts you used, and the date accessed. You could add this declaration as a footnote, or at the end of your reference list, but check with your supervisor to clarify.
In certain circumstances, in addition to a declaration, you may also be required to cite and reference material generated by artificial intelligence as you would any other source.
What Remains Yours
Two judgments do not transfer to the tool regardless of how good the draft is.
The first is factual accuracy about your own work. Every specific claim a draft makes about what you did requires checking line by line against what actually happened. AI drafts tend to inflate quietly: assisted with becomes led,a shared effort becomes an individual one. This is not a fault on the tool's part. It's exactly when AI is most impressive that humans are most vulnerable to turning off our minds in the process. The correction is a habit: read every draft specifically looking for claims you could not defend if questioned, and strike them.
The second is privacy, and it extends beyond your own information. The AI will sometimes tempt you to reach for material that improves its output but is not yours to share, such as a former employer's figures, a colleague's story, or a client's details. Ask yourself, "Am I willing for this information to leave my hands under this tool's terms?"
Conclusion
AI tools may be genuinely good at producing plans, drafts, brainstorming more options than a person would generate unaided, and at adapting existing material to a new audience or format. It is not good at knowing which version is right, what this particular situation requires, or what is true about you and your work. Thus it is of utmost importance to be very critical of the output, verifying and modifying thoroughly. Building on this, chapter 6 moves from AI that produces material to AI that takes action — tools, automation, and agents — where the same question about oversight arrives with considerably higher stakes.