Guidance on safe and responsible use of Gen AI tools

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is a fast-evolving technology and, during your time at Oxford, the University wants to enable and support the safe and productive use of these tools that will be important in your future.

Ethical use

GenAI tools must be used responsibly and ethically, in accordance with the academic standards of rigour and integrity that are expected of you as a student at Oxford. You should always use AI tools with integrity, honesty, and transparency, and maintain a critical approach to using any output generated by these tools.

This document contains some useful tips for using GenAI to support your studies at Oxford.

You should always follow the advice and guidance of your tutors and/or supervisors, and consult your department or faculty in relation to ethical use.

Assessment

For each specific assessment you will be given prior written notice of whether or not the use of AI is permitted. You are fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and quality of work you submit for assessment, and you must follow the rules on AI use for each specific assessment you are taking. You must make a formal declaration of any permitted AI-use in the format prescribed by your assessment setter.

Any unauthorised use of AI in work submitted for assessment constitutes cheating and plagiarism under University rules, penalties for which include failing the relevant assessment and, in appropriate cases, expulsion.  

Any use of AI in work submitted for assessment is unauthorised unless you are specifically told differently in writing, in advance of the assessment, in instructions from your faculty’s or department for the specific assessment in question. Even if a type of AI use has been authorised for a previous assessment, or for formative work, it is your responsibility to ensure that you comply with the rules on AI use for the specific assessment you are taking, in the knowledge that all types of AI use are unauthorised unless specifically listed in assessment instructions.

Cases of suspected unauthorised use of AI in assessment are covered by the University’s student conduct regulations. You should make yourself familiar with these regulations, as any actions that are found potentially to be in breach of them will be reviewed in line with the University’s Code of Discipline and Academic Disciplinary procedure.

You should always follow the guidance of your tutors and/or supervisors, and of your department or faculty.

Use in research

All research undertaken by academic staff and students, including by postgraduate students, must meet the expectations in the Policy for using Generative AI in Research: guidelines for researchers and professional staff. Substantive use of GenAI should be declared whenever a stand-alone AI tool is used (such as ChatGPT Edu), but not where GenAI functionality is embedded within existing software. 

Substantive use of GenAI by students who are conducting research as part of a graduate research programme is defined as: 

• interpreting and analysing data (including audio and image files) and texts, 
• undertaking a literature review or translation, 
• identifying research gaps, 
• formulating research aims, 
• developing hypotheses, 
• assisting with generating ideas or to develop one’s own thinking, 
• generating code and synthetic data, 
• undertaking transcription of interviews, meetings etc. to save time and effort rather than overcoming barriers (see exclusions below) 
• producing documents using other people’s work or from transcripts or recordings. 

Substantive use may exclude using GenAI for tasks such as assisting you with translation if you are a non-native speaker, transforming transcribed spoken language into written language if you face barriers to writing, formatting documents, or improving the standard of your English or of a foreign language. 

As with assessment, you should always follow the guidance of your tutors, supervisors, and of your department or faculty. 

Use of GenAI in research falls within the scope of research conduct and the permitted use of AI as outlined abov. Actions that are found to be in potential breach will be reviewed in line with the University's Code of practice and procedure on academic integrity in research. 

Your health and wellbeing

Because of the way that GenAI tools work, they are not a replacement for human interaction and are not equipped to offer therapy or mental health support. You should be aware that GenAI tools lack emotional nuance and clinical awareness. They can sometimes give inaccurate and potentially dangerous advice. At times of heightened distress or mental health crisis, AI chatbots may reinforce harmful thoughts through feedback loops.  

The University’s Student Welfare and Support Services offer a range of support with welfare and wellbeing. This includes access to Togetherall, a free and anonymous online platform where for connecting with others about what’s going on in life - big or small. Togetherall also offers free courses, resources, and anonymous chats to support your wellbeing, 24 hours a day. The SWSS also provide a free counselling service and a wealth of resources on the Oxford Students website and MyOxford app. 

In addition, support and advice are available from your college, department, fellow students and the Students' Union. There are contacts for emergency (including out of hours) and non-emergency services for health, welfare and academic support. 

All student welfare services remain open throughout the vacations (except Bank Holiday Mondays and the Christmas closure period), with some adjusted opening hours (listed on each service's page) and vacation welfare support page. 

Using GenAI to support your studies

Part of what a university education teaches is academic skills such as assimilating information, constructing an evidence-based argument, and expressing your thoughts in clear, coherent prose. 

AI tools cannot replace human critical thinking or the development of scholarly, evidence-based arguments and the subject knowledge that form the basis of your university education. You should always cross-check AI generated outputs against established sources to verify accuracy and identify erroneous information. 

You may make use of University-supported generative AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT Edu, Google Gemini, Notebook LM and Copilot Chat) to develop your academic skills and to support your studies. This should be done in consultation with your tutors, faculty, or department, and you should always follow their advice in relation to how they expect AI tools to be used (or not used) for different tasks. These tools are accessed via your University Single Sign-On (SSO) account.  

Your ongoing critical appraisal of GenAI outputs, by reviewing them critically for accuracy and relevance, will maximise their potential to support you in your studies. 

Academic writing and presentation skills

Depending on your academic discipline, GenAI tools can be useful in developing your academic writing skills and providing initial feedback on them, translating between different styles, and critiquing your own writing. They cannot replace the need for you to develop such skills through tutorials or supervisions, and independent learning, however. 

Depending on your academic discipline, GenAI tools also may be used to support your academic reading, but there is a risk that they could undermine the development of critical academic skills (e.g. if you use a GenAI tool to summarise an article for you, rather than fully engaging with the literature or undertaking the task yourself). You should always remain alert to the limitations of AI-generated outputs.  

Appropriate use of GenAI tools to support your academic writing and presentation skills varies across academic disciplines. Always follow any advice and guidance of your tutors or supervisors, department/faculty, or college, on what is appropriate in your subject area. 

Supporting the learning process

Generative AI tools may be useful in supporting your academic studies, but be sure to discuss AI outputs with academic staff to confirm your understanding and to help verify them against established sources, to ensure their accuracy. 

Appropriate use of GenAI tools to support the learning process varies across different academic disciplines. Always follow any advice and guidance of your tutors or supervisors, and of your department or faculty, and/or college, on what is appropriate in your subject area. 

Tips for using GenAI tools effectively

The University provides you with access to secure, enterprise-level ChatGPT Edu, Google Gemini, Notebook LM and Copilot Chat tools.  

Different GenAI tools can be used for different purposes. Here are some examples of key uses for some of the secure tools the University supports: 

• ChatGPT Edu – Advanced content generation, summarising information and complex reasoning 
• Microsoft Copilot Chat – Web-grounded chat, summarising information, drafting content and web-based information retrieval 
• Google Gemini – AI assistance that is integrated with Google Workspace, or can be used as a standalone chat tool 
• Notebook LM – An AI assistant that can interact with and summarise lecture notes, papers and other uploaded sources to aid research and study. 

You may find it useful to try a few different GenAI tools and you should be aware that different tools will give different outputs to one another, from the same prompts. Within a single tool you may also get different outputs in response to the same prompt. It is important to be aware that:

• You will get different responses using the same prompts from the same GenAI tool. AI outputs are not repeatable, and all tools can generate outputs that contain inaccuracies and fabrications. 
• You could spend a lot of time trying out different AI tools. Be careful to balance your exploration of GenAI with managing your time effectively. 
• GenAI tools may draw on data that can be months or years out of date and, whilst outputs seem plausible, they may contain errors and/or reflect biases from the original data the tool was trained on. For example, Western perspectives are overly represented. 
• GenAI tools do not replace the need for you to develop your own knowledge, skills, and critical awareness, as an independent learner.
• Take care when inputting material into any third-party tools that are not provided by the University. These may not meet the University’s standards of information security and data protection. Never upload confidential, sensitive, or unpublished material into third-party AI tools.  

Help and technical support with GenAI tools 

If you need help or technical support with using University-supported GenAI tools: 

1. Consider first seeking support from the company whose product you're using: 

• ChatGPT Edu: For access and activation queries, please use the OpenAI help portal. You can use the chat at the bottom of the page to ask questions and connect with support by clicking on the Message tab. If you are unable to resolve your issue through the help portal, then you should contact OpenAI support directly by email at [email protected]. 
• Microsoft Copilot: The Microsoft Support site can be searched to assist with queries on Copilot. 
• Google Gemini: Google's Gemini Apps Help page offers various pieces of advice and support for using Gemini. 
• NotebookLM: Google’s NotebookLM Help page covers help topics from getting started to troubleshooting NotebookLM.

If your query is about whether an outage is affecting your connection to a particular tool, try the relevant status pages:

• OpenAI Status page for ChatGPT Edu 
• Microsoft Status page for Microsoft Copilot 
• Google Status page for Google Gemini and NotebookLM 

2. For simple queries regarding University-supported GenAI tools and support, use the AI Competency Centre chatbot to be directed to relevant information. 

3. Contact the University's IT Service Desk if you need more support - they can help you with ChatGPT Edu, Microsoft Copilot, or the GenAI tools in the University's Google workspace (Gemini and Notebook LM). If your query needs escalating, the IT Service Desk will involve our GenAI specialists at the AI Competency Centre or signpost you to tailored support from elsewhere in the University, as needed. 

Find out more

To find out more about using GenAI tools at Oxford, please visit the Generative AI at Oxford webpage.