How to use Generative AI critically

This guidance focuses on the skills you need to engage critically and ethically with the outputs of Generative AI (GenAI) tools and develop your understanding of how they can inform your academic work.

Before using an AI tool to support your studies, it's important to be aware of any limitations on AI use within particular modules or assessments. Some modules or assessments may not allow the use of GenAI, so check your school handbook and module and assessment guidance. If you're unsure, contact your department for clarification on what's permitted.

What is critical use of GenAI?

In general terms, the critical use of AI (critical AI literacy) is the awareness of both the potential advantages and limitations of AI and how you can use it ethically. This means understanding the risks of using AI including the potential for bias and misinformation, issues of privacy and data protection, ownership and copyright, and the environmental and social impact. Critical GenAI literacy sees GenAI as being as much of a socio-economic and cultural phenomenon as it is a technology. As AI becomes increasingly embedded in many of the things we do, critical AI literacy is an essential skill to develop, both in an academic and a professional context.

Explore the Critical Generative AI literacy guide below to consider these issues in more depth.

View the Critical Generative AI literacy guide

Do you need to use GenAI?

As a first step, and with awareness of the issues discussed in the Critical Generative AI literacy guide, consider the pros and cons of using GenAI for the specific task you have in mind and weigh up whether using GenAI is likely to be beneficial for this purpose. You may decide that you prefer not to use GenAI this time.

Keep in mind that each AI request has an environmental impact so it's important to ask yourself whether it's necessary to use AI for your task.

Example: Using GenAI to get an overview of a topic

What are some of the pros and cons of using GenAI for this purpose:

Pros

It can present unfamiliar topics in a clear and accessible way.
It can simplify and break down complex concepts and ideas.
It can help you identify areas for further investigation.
It is dialogic - i.e. you can ‘chat’ with the tool to seek further information.

Cons

Its outputs may be superficial or lack insight.
It will sometimes make things up or get things wrong (misinformation).
It can close down your own capacity for original thinking.
Biased outputs could lead you to miss important aspects of a topic. It can be harder to spot bias when you are unfamiliar with a topic.
It may take you longer to check the accuracy of the AI generated output than it would have done to consult reliable sources of information directly.

Action: Identify the pros and cons for the task you are looking to use AI for and consider these when reviewing the output/s you receive.

How to use GenAI critically

In order to make the most of GenAI as a tool to augment your own original thinking, we recommend following five stages:

1. Background research and thinking

The use of AI tools within your studies is most effective when you have a clear purpose, an understanding of the outputs you expect to receive, and some knowledge of the information they are likely to include.

Therefore, it is very important that you don’t simply put your essay title into an AI tool. Before you reach for the GenAI tool, based on your topic or assignment question, what are your initial thoughts?

What do you know already?
Do you have an opinion or idea?
What gaps do you think you might have in your knowledge?
What might you need to read or research further?

2. Initial prompting

Use your background reading and thinking to formulate a prompt that builds on, rather than replaces, your own ideas. A good prompt will include at least three main elements:

A role: what role do you want the AI tool to play? For example: Act as an expert in…; You are writing for an academic audience…
A function: what do you want the AI tool to do. Can you build the function to incorporate your own background thinking and ideas and use the AI tool as a ‘critical friend’? For example: ‘Provide a summary of five key perspectives on the claim that xxxxx. Include arguments for and against this claim and support these arguments with examples’.
Limitations: what do you want to get back from the AI tool. Be specific. For example: Provide five main points; Answer in no more than 500 words; summarise your answer using bullet points.

You may find some of the example prompts within the GenAI Academic Prompt Bank useful when developing your own prompts.

3. Dialogic Prompting

Generative AI is sometimes referred to as ‘chat’ for a reason - you are supposed to enter into a dialogue with it. It is likely that your initial output will be superficial and generic. How can you develop a richer output? How can you dig deeper into the basic ideas? You might want to try one or more of the following strategies:

Expand the scope: What are the alternative perspectives, counter arguments or omissions? For example: Provide counter arguments for each of these points.
Provide context: What are some examples or case studies to illustrate or support these points? For example: Provide some real-world examples for each of the above points.
Dig deeper: What else do you want to know? Ask the AI tool to elaborate, clarify or compare ideas to produce a more nuanced output. For example: Identify common misconceptions about [insert theory] and clarify them in simple terms, ensuring a better understanding of the concept.

Don't just ask AI to provide the answer or a correction, but encourage further reflection. For example, 'identify the part of my text where the logic is unclear but don't tell me what exactly' or 'list the language mistakes in this text but don't correct them. Provide hints to help me correct.'

4. Critical analysis of outputs, fact checking and further research

The process of entering into a dialogue to explore a topic will have produced outputs that you need to analyse critically and raised new ideas that you will need to explore further using established methods and tools for finding information.

It’s important to be aware that there are significant limits to the capability of GenAI tools for finding accurate and reliable information. However, GenAI tools can be a useful starting point when you’re looking for a definition of an unfamiliar term, or an overview of a topic. The tutorial below explores these issues further.

Start the online tutorial - Using AI and GenAI to find information

Just as with any piece of information you use, it is essential that you critically analyse the outputs you receive from GenAI tools.

Looking at the outputs, some initial things to consider include:

What facts do you need to check?
Are examples or case studies genuine or hypothetical?
Can you find credible sources to support key points?
Can you think of any gaps, limitations or biases in the outputs? Why might they be there?

Further guidance on how to critically evaluate information can be found on the ‘How to question information’ page:

How to question information

You should always verify any information generated using reliable, fact-checked sources such as encyclopaedias, textbooks, journal papers or reliable websites.

Further guidance on using established methods and tools for finding information can be found under the Searching for information area:

Searching for information

5. Acknowledge, Describe, Evidence

When using the outputs from GenAI to support you with an assignment, it is important that you disclose how you used them. This will enable your tutor to see how your own thinking intersects with the GenAI tool’s outputs.

You can provide this information by completing an Acknowledge, Describe, Evidence template, which you may be asked to submit as an appendix to your assignment.

Some schools may use a different template for acknowledging GenAI use. Check with your school or tutor to ensure you are following the correct process for your programme or module.

Find out more about using GenAI for assessment

StudySkills@Sheffield