Sample AI Syllabi Statements

Below are sample AI syllabi statements, grouped into four categories based on the degree to which generative AI tools are allowed. Instructors can consult and incorporate into their course syllabi however they deem appropriate. 

AI Tools Not Allowed

Tarah Rowse
Sustainability

Policy on Use of Artificial Intelligence:
Intellectual honesty is vital to an academic community and for my fair evaluation of your work. All work submitted in this course must be your own, completed in accordance with the college’s honor code. You may not engage in unauthorized collaboration or make use of ChatGPT or other AI composition software for course assignments.

Eileen Sperry
English

Plagiarism and AI:
In addition to following Skidmore’s standard academic integrity policies, the class agrees that ChatGPT and/or other AI software will not be used for generating content for class assignments. We recognize that these may offer a useful tool for some editing phases, but also acknowledge that it is one tool among many. Professor Sperry will offer instruction and guidance in developing writing, editing, and research skills that support or supplement the areas where such tools might be needed.

Rachel Roe-Dale
Mathematics and Statistics

Academic Integrity:
The Skidmore Honor System was established at the request of the student body in 1921. Each student, in matriculating at Skidmore College (or engaging in any Skidmore-sponsored activity or program as a non-matriculated student), agrees to the following code: “I hereby accept membership in the Skidmore College community and, with full realization of the responsibilities inherent in membership, do agree to adhere to honesty and integrity in all relationships, to be considerate of the rights of others, and to abide by the college regulations.” In this course, academic integrity means that all submitted work reflects your own effort. All course work is to be completed unaided by AI chatbots (chatGPT, etc.) unless explicitly instructed to utilize AI systems.

Jessada Mahatthananchai
Chemistry

We take the Skidmore Honor Code very seriously. Violation of the honor code, including cheating, plagiarism, unauthorized use of online resources including but not limited to ChatGPT, Chegg, etc, will not be tolerated and will result in the failure of the course and/or further action outlined in https://www.skidmore.edu/osaa/integrity/index.php

Ryan Overbey
Religious Studies

A note on ChatGPT & LLMs:
Let’s call a spade a spade: once you see through the venture-capital fueled hype, you will understand that ChatGPT is not “artificial intelligence.” It’s a dumb plagiarism machine. Large language models (LLMs) were built by scraping publicly available texts on the Internet: Reddit posts, fanfiction archives, legal and illegal collections of scanned books and scholarly articles. They then blend these sources together into a tasteless slurry, regurgitating responses to your typed questions based on the mathematical probability that a given word is likely to come next in a phrase or sentence. LLMs are fun toys because they give the appearance of intelligence, but nobody should ever use an LLM for anything more serious than generating new fanfiction. In terms of policy for this course: the writing assignments in this course exist to encourage you to work on your craft. Using a plagiarism machine to write for you is the opposite of working on your craft. Don’t do it. If I learn that you used ChatGPT or other LLMs for any written assignment in this course, the penalty will be an “F” grade for that assignment.

AI Tools Allowed if Properly Cited

Lauren Rabinowitz
Education Studies

Academic Integrity:
Your commitment to the Skidmore College Honor System will be taken very seriously in this class. Academic integrity is essential for the creation and maintenance of a classroom community based on trust and academic freedom. All work for this class must be your own and references to the work of others must be properly represented and cited. You will be expected to use American Psychological Association 7 (APA 7) style for citation and reference format in your written work. Please consult the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Academic Affairs (https://www.skidmore.edu/adofsaa/integrity/index.php) for guidelines and definitions associated with academic integrity at Skidmore College.

Note that violations of academic integrity include claiming that a text written by a generation system as one’s own (e.g., entering a prompt into an artificial intelligence tool and using the output in a paper). The use of AI text generation platforms (e.g., ChatGPT) is allowed only on certain assignments, as noted in the assignment descriptions, and the use of it must be clearly identified with the student’s own work distinguished from the AI generated text using track changes, a different color/bold font or a written explanation.

Julie Douglas
Mathematics and Statistics

Collaboration:
You are encouraged and even expected to work with your classmates on the exercises. However, to receive full credit, all individual assignments must represent your own individual work, meaning your words, your solutions, your R code, and your ideas. No collaboration is permitted on quizzes or exams. At all times, you are expected to honor and abide by the principles and provisions of the Skidmore College Honor Code. Copying exercise solutions, R code, sentences, and/or paragraphs from any source is unacceptable and will result in zero credit for the entire assignment, exam, or quiz. Note that the use of AI-generated content without proper attribution or authorization is another form of plagiarism.

Charmaine Willis
Political Science

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tool Usage1: You may use AI programs e.g., ChatGPT to help generate ideas and brainstorm. However, you should note that the material generated by these programs may be inaccurate, incomplete, or otherwise problematic. Beware that use may also stifle your own independent thinking and creativity. You may not submit any work generated by an AI program as your own. If you include material generated by an AI program, it should be cited like any other reference material (with due consideration for the quality of the reference, which may be poor).

1 Adapted from Holly Fernandez-Lyn, University of Pennsylvania.

Tim Wientzen
English

ChatGPT/AI  policy:
AI is a powerful writing tool, but the ability to utilize it effectively requires an array of foundational writing skills. In this class, you are welcome to use AI as a writing tool in whatever way you find useful (e.g. brainstorming, outlining, etc.). However, you are prohibited from copying and pasting text generated by AI into your own paper. All assignments will be uploaded to theSpring, which uses an AI detection tool and may flag an assignment that utilizes AI-generated text.

For purposes of addressing violations of the Honor Code, the unacknowledged use of AI in submitted work will be considered an act of plagiarism.

Gwen D’Arcangelis
Gender Studies

Please note that it is considered plagiarism to use–without proper attribution–any text or ideas from writing and study aids, whether online sites (like Course Hero or Chegg) or generative AI (like ChatGPT). Further, please be advised that the content in these sites often does not come with sources. Thus, if you do use these online or AI tools, they are best used only as starting points for your thinking, not as source material or trustworthy data for your writing.

Winston Grady-Willis
Black Studies

Academic Integrity:
Academic integrity is critical to maintaining fair, knowledge-based learning and the foundational bonds of trust and honesty among members of the Skidmore College community. Academic misconduct in any form is a serious violation of the Skidmore Honor Code: “I hereby accept membership in the Skidmore College community and, with full realization of the responsibilities inherent in membership, do agree to adhere to honesty and integrity in all relationships, to be considerate of the rights of others, and to abide by the college regulations.” Please consult the academic integrity portal for more information. Examples of academic misconduct include, but are not limited to cheating on an exam, submitting for credit work done by someone else (including plagiarism and paraphrasing without citing sources), and plagiarism in conjunction with the unacknowledged use of generative AI technologies or online sites such as ChatGPT, Chegg, Course Hero, etc.

Eliza Kent
Religious Studies

Making references to the work of others strengthens your own work by granting you greater authority and by showing that you are part of a discussion located within a community.  When you make references (by quotation or paraphrase) to the work of others, it is essential to provide proper attribution and citation.  Failing to do so is considered academically dishonest, as is copying or paraphrasing someone else’s work, even (or especially) if that someone is an AI like chatGPT.  Please consult Appendix B for the citation format I recommend for your work in this class.

Erica Wojcik
Psychology

ChatGPT/AI  disclosure policy (based on policy written by  Prof. Andrew Piper, McGill University):
This class maintains a policy that you may use AI writing tools to assist you in the writing process but that all artificially generated text needs to be explicitly labeled.  In handing in your assignment (reflection papers, oral presentation outlines, and any other long-form assignments written at home), you agree to disclose the extent to which you used chatGPT, Grammarly, and other AI writing tools in your assignment. All text written by AI must be quoted with the source of the model in parentheses (chatGPT), and you may only use text written by AI for 2 sentences max per assignment.  At the end of your assignment (or in the submission form), please include the following statement. Failure to adequately disclose your AI use will result in a 0 for the assignment. If you have any questions about this policy at any time, please come see me.

“This paper/outline used (did not use) AI for the following components of the writing process:”

Choose none to four of the following: brainstorming, outlining, editing, sentence generation

June Paul
Social Work

ChatGPT/AI Disclosure Policy:
This class maintains a policy that you may use AI writing tools to assist you in the writing process but that all artificially generated text needs to be explicitly labeled. In handing in your assignment (reflection papers, oral presentation outlines, and any other long-form assignments written at home), you agree to disclose the extent to which you used ChatGPT and other AI writing tools in your assignment. All text written by AI must be quoted with the source of the model in parentheses (ChatGPT), and you may only use text written by AI for 2 sentences maximum per assignment. At the end of your assignment, please include the following statement (based on policy written by Prof. Andrew Piper, McGill University).

“This paper used AI for the following components of the writing process:” Choose none to four of the following: brainstorming, outlining, editing, sentence generation.

Example: “This paper used AI for the following components of the writing process:” outlining, editing.

Failure to adequately disclose your AI use will result in a 0 for the assignment. If you have any questions about this policy at any time, please come see me.

Marketa Wolfe
Economics

If you use artificial intelligence (AI) platforms in your assignments, write a note in the assignment to clarify how you used AI and which platform(s) you used. Note that the AI platforms often provide inaccurate and incomplete information.

Dan Nathan
American Studies

Artificial Intelligence Policy:
You must notify me if you use AI (say, ChatGPT) to write a paper, just as you are required to cite any other source. But whether to use AI or not is up to you. I strongly advise against using it, for many reasons.

Open-Ended AI Policies with Guidance

Erika Schielke
Biology

Generative AI:
AI tools, like ChatGPT, can be useful learning resources. However, they contain biases, inaccuracies, and incomplete information. Using these tools requires interrogation of the information and sources. It is your responsibility to ensure the accuracy of any information you obtain from ChatGPT. You are expected to acknowledge any use of ChatGPT – including the specific prompt(s) you entered. ChatGPT itself is not a source; it is a tool used to compile information.

Katie Hauser
Art History

Generative AI Use:
Generative AI is an important tool that can help to streamline your work process and prepare you for an AI-impacted job market, and it is crucial to learn how to use it efficiently and ethically.

Important things to keep in mind about AI:

• Never share personal, confidential, identifiable, information
• Keep in mind that AI is developed by flawed humans, so suffers from the same biases (racism, ageism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, Islamophobia, transphobia, etc.) that we do
• It makes sh*t up
• Its source material is the uncompensated work of others (there are pending lawsuits about this), therefore it may plagiarize and you won’t know
• It requires enormous energy expenditure to cool the large data centers
• It potentially replaces human workers
• AH specific>I don’t believe it really knows (yet) how to undertake the kind of thoughtful, evidence-based object analysis required in art history

Before you use AI, you can ask yourself:

• Is this an appropriate use of automation?
• Is it worth the complex layers (human, environmental, ethical) of cost associated with it?
• Does my professor permit it, and if so under what circumstances and how?

For this class, you MAY use generative AI such as ChatGPT, Bard, or similar programs, for the following tasks: 

• Brainstorming and refining your ideas
• Fine tuning your thesis statement
• Finding information on your topic (but you must verify its authenticity, just like with any other source; AI often generates “hallucinations,” fake citations, so it’s really not a great research tool)
• Drafting an outline to organize your thoughts
• Checking grammar and style
• Translating your essay into English from your primary language (you are advised to check for grammar/translation errors when you do this)

Using generative AI to represent yourself and your ideas is academic dishonesty and robs you of your self-expression—in this class, I am interested in your original ideas about design, not ChatGPT’s. You may NOT use generative AI to wholly complete a required assignment. If you do use AI please indicate which AI and what you asked of it.

Research shows that people learn more and retain the information longer when they write about it in their own words. If instead, students task an AI to generate texts, they won’t learn as much.

A useful how to guide https://teamdynamix.umich.edu/TDClient/101/Portal/Home/?ID=01398c19-c507-4550-843f-878fd86a9ec1

Lisa Chalik
Psychology

Today, there are a number of AI tools available that some students use for help with coursework (most notably, chatGPT). These tools can sometimes be helpful for things like generating ideas and improving writing. However, it is important to note that the use of AI is not meant to replace your own original thinking and writing. You are required to put in the effort to understand the material in this course and critically analyze it to produce your own original work. To that end, if you use an AI tool for anything in this course, you MUST disclose it. If you use AI and do not disclose it, this will be considered an academic integrity violation (see above). Furthermore, keep in mind that AI tools make significant mistakes, often presenting information that looks correct, but is clearly false to anyone with subject-matter expertise. Therefore, if you use AI to support your work in this course, you do so at your own risk.

Erika Schielke
Biology

AI tools such as ChatGPT may be used in the preparation of assignments for this course, within the following guidelines:

• Use of any AI tool must be acknowledged
• You are responsible for the accuracy of all information obtained using AI tools (keep in mind that these tools replicate societal biases and sometimes fabricate information, sources, etc.)
• Examples of acceptable uses include:
• Using AI to help generate ideas
• Proofreading
• Providing suggestions to improve structure, grammar, etc. of a written piece
• Literature search
• Examples of unacceptable uses include:
• Copying and pasting any AI-generated content
• Using AI without acknowledgement
• Using AI without checking provided information for accuracy
• Use of AI for peer review

To cite: include a statement at the bottom of your work indicating which AI tool was used, and how it was used.

Lauren Rabinowitz
Education Studies

AI Writing Norms (created by students enrolled in ED213):

• Main ideas must be student generated. 
• Students can use an AI only after a paper is written.
• Students can treat AI like a peer tutor in the Writing Center by asking it for feedback ideas. They should not ask the AI to change their writing. 
• Students can ask the AI to grade a paper based on given scoring criteria then review the feedback and make their own revisions to the original paper. 
• AI can be used for editing support (e.g. mechanics and sentence structure). This can be done with small 1-2 sentences of writing. Students still need to cross-check edited writing to ensure that it is conveying their intention. 
• If AI is used, the student must submit to the professor the questions that they fed into the AI, the responses that the AI gave and their paper prior to the AI revision alongside the final paper. 

Students can use AI for support with APA style. But, they should cross check how accurate it is using other sources.

Ruben Castillo
Art

Additionally, honesty in the work produced for this class extends to the use of AI technology. AI technology is timely and complicated. Some students argue that the tools are an automated and mindless response to institutional requirements that are critiqued as arbitrary and equally mindless. Others find that this technology circumvents (and potentially eliminates) valuable critical thinking skills. And others use the technology to prompt critical questions about our culture at large. Any use of AI tools should be to augment the work and ideas that are fundamentally yours, not just make your work “easier.” Remember, AI pulls from what it can find on its own and will often make up information that is not correct. Be honest when you’re using AI, as dishonest use of AI apps is akin to academic dishonesty. As with any tool used for this class, you should be prepared to answer and defend why the tool is essential to your work.

Lisa Jackson-Schebetta
Theater

Also note we will, as a class, determine how AI tools such as ChatGPT, QuillBot, and others will or will not be part of our work

Use of AI Encouraged and Leveraged for Learning

Matt Lucas
Management and Business

MB351 is an expectation that you use AI (e.g., ChatGPT and image generation tools) in this class. In fact, some assignments will require it. Learning to use AI is an emerging skill and I provide tutorials on how to use them. I am happy to meet and help you with these tools during office hours or after class.

Be aware of the limits of ChatGPT, such as the following:

• If you provide minimum-effort prompts, you will get low-quality results. You will need to refine your prompts in order to get good outcomes. This will take work.
• Don’t trust anything it says. If it gives you a number or fact, assume it is wrong unless you either know the answer or can check with another source. You will be responsible for any errors or omissions provided by the tool. It works best for topics you understand.
• AI is a tool, but one that you need to acknowledge using. Please include a paragraph at the end of any assignment that uses AI explaining what you used the AI for and what prompts you used to get the results. Failure to do so is in violation of academic honesty policies.
• Be thoughtful about when this tool is useful. Don’t use it if it isn’t appropriate for the case or circumstance.

Kelly Gross
Social Work

AI Policy:
AI is something we might never use, be tempted to use, or use often. There is appropriate and inappropriate use of AI in this class.  We will talk more in class about this and even try some out!

Appropriate use of AI when writing essays or other papers:

•   You are free to use spell check, grammar check, and synonym identification tools (e.g., Grammarly, and MS Word)
•   You are free to use app recommendations when it comes to rephrasing sentences or reorganizing paragraphs you have drafted yourself  
•   You are free to use app recommendations when it comes to tweaking outlines you have drafted yourself
•   You are free to use AI to spark ideas for your writing or to see what the possibilities are for writing.  This use of AI is to jumpstart your writing and is NOT for you simply to copy and paste text!
•   You must cite the use of the AI tool when you are using it to write, the exceptions are for spell check/grammar check.  

Inappropriate use of AI when writing essays or other papers:

•   You may not use entire sentences or paragraphs suggested by an app without providing quotation marks and a citation, just as you would to any other source. Citations should take this form: OpenAI, chatGPT. Response to prompt: “Explain what is meant by the term  ‘Triple Bottom Line’” (February 15, 2023, https://chat.openai.com/).
•   You may not have an app write a draft (either rough or final) of an assignment that is being turned in.

David Cohen
Management and Business

Use of AI Programs:  
You may use AI programs (e.g. ChatGPT) to help generate ideas and brainstorm.  You are encouraged to use it to help with your written work, particularly for spelling, grammar and form.  You should be aware, however, that the material generated by these programs may be inaccurate, incomplete, or otherwise problematic. 

You may not submit any work generated by an AI program as your own.  If you include material generated by an AI program, you must disclose that fact.  You are solely responsible for any work submitted under your name. Please seek clarification from me if you are unsure about the appropriate use of AI programs.

Taking credit for work that is not your own (including work by a large language model or other tool) is plagiarism and a breach of the Skidmore honor code, and will be treated as such.

Michael Marx
English

In its statement on writing and generative AI, the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum introduces its position by first reaffirming the purpose of writing in college:

[W]riting is a mode of learning. Students develop understanding and insights through the act of writing. Rather than writing simply being a matter of presenting existing information or furnishing products for the purpose of testing or grading, writing is a fundamental means to create deep learning and foster cognitive development. Learning to write within a field or major is also one of the most critical ways that emerging scholars and professionals become enculturated in a discourse community.  (Statement on Artificial Intelligence Writing Tools  in Writing Across the Curriculum Settings, January 2023)

Using a generative AI tool such as ChatGPT, Bard, or Claude to “write” a paper undermines these values and the purpose of writing in our class and contradicts liberal arts learning, the educational philosophy informing Skidmore College.  One of the objectives of our class is to develop and improve our academic writing. As we are learning to write, we will be using writing to learn–about __________.

My starting assumption about you as a student at Skidmore College is that you are here to learn, not cheat your way to your degree.  You are willing, I assume, to undertake the hard work of learning:  actively reading and taking notes, participating in class discussions, exploring alternative points of view, thinking critically, and recognizing that failure can be a powerful tool for learning.

As tempting as it may be to have a generative AI program spit out a paper for you in less time than it takes to paste the assignment prompt into the message window, do not do it.  

Generative AI, however, can serve as a productive and ethical tool for writers.  Throughout the semester, we will explore some of those uses–such as brainstorming, creating models to analyze, and developing an awareness of your writing style. We will also consider the current drawbacks to generative AI–its hallucinations and outright incorrect information.

Each paper you write will include an Acknowledgements Page in which you present the resources you used to write your paper and how (and why) you used them, from human resources such as meeting with a tutor in the Writing Center to digital resources such as using ChatGPT to develop an outline for your paper.  Writing is an inherently collaborative act, and the Acknowledgements Page allows you to make visible this often invisible or overlooked dimension of your writing process.  The Acknowledgement Page should come at the end of your paper, immediately after the Words Cited page and Bibliography.