The use of Generative AI tools on this course

To a certain degree Generative AI (GAI) tools (like ChatGPT, Copilot and others) are just tools. You are allowed to use spell-checking tools to obtain better spelling in your hand-ins - and you are also allowed to use GAI tools to improve the contents in your hand-ins. However, in an academic context there is one very important requirement to your work - and that is that it is clear what is the "works of others" and what is "your independent work".

So try to think of Copilot (or other similar tools) as a person. If you do that, it should be very clear that there are two things that you are not allowed to do:

• you are not allowed to let another person do the work for you. So you cannot let another person write a lab report and then put your name on it (that is called ghost-writing and has never been allowed). You cannot let another person write a project report or parts of a thesis and then put your name on it. If you are a group it does not mean that everyone has to write on all sentences, but neither does it mean that one person in the group can write the whole report and everyone gets their name on it. Everyone in the group has to contribute to the report - and Copilot is not a member of your group :-)
• you are not allowed to copy pieces of text that others have written and pretend that it is your own text (that is called plagiarism and has never been acceptable). Obviously you can use text that others have written, but that requires that you put it in quotes (so it is clear that it is not your own text) and that you put a reference to it (so it is clear who is the original author). Just like you can use text from one of my papers (if you quote and reference it), you can also use text that has been created by Copilot (if you quote and reference it - and as part of the reference, I would like to know what you instructed Copilot to do). So just like you can quote "in his lecture note, Lars Bendix claims that git has support for the change set model", you will also be allowed to use claims from Copilot.

So, do use all possible sources of information - course literature, other literature, things from the lectures, labs, exercises - and discussions in your group (or with Copilot) - you are following this course to learn (I hope). However, in your hand-ins and your project report it has to be clear what is yours and what comes from others - and at the oral exam I will evaluate your ability to select and use and apply all these sources of information.

In the exercises and labs parts of the course there will be some GAI tasks where you can use Copilot (or other GAI tools). The purpose is that you should explore to what degree the tool provides correct and complete answers (compared to what you know about the topics) - and experiment with how you should formulate questions/tasks to obtain better/perfect answers from the tool (again compared to the knowledge you have). Using tools like Copilot for these GAI tasks (and maybe also other tasks) is in no way cheating - it will help you investigate how such tools can be used to help you learn more in a shorter time.

Oh - and by the way - no, you cannot bring Copilot (or other GAI tools) to the oral exam ;-)

Additional resources:

• GAI learning objectives on this course
• Four things to keep in mind when using ChatGPT, article from Unit for Educational Services, Lund University
• The potential impact of AI tools on assessment, article from Unit for Educational Services, Lund University
• Generative AI tools, from Unit for Educational Services, Lund University
• Copilot (you can sign in with your LU account)