Forming Policies for Ethical AI Use in Academic Writing

Abstract

Easy access to generati ve AI has raised concerns about students’ engaging in academic dishonesty in their writi ng. AI in writi ng where a text writt en by an AI text generati ng soft ware is used and submitt ed for disseminati on or evaluati on is presented as the students’ own work can be considered to be plagiarism. Students in higher educati on insti tuti ons can be penalized if AI text is detected in their examinati ons. However, as AI text generators can also be used to support and improve a student’s writi ng, there is a questi on as to what extent and what types of usage of AI text generators can be considered as plagiarism. Thus, it would be of great advantage to students if their respecti ve higher educati on insti tuti ons can have clear guidelines and policies on AI use in students’ academic writi ng. This literature survey analyses the policies and instructi ons with regard to AI use in writi ng developed by the topmost universiti es in four English as a fi rst language countries, namely Melbourne (Australia), Auckland (New Zealand), Cambridge (UK) and Princeton (USA). The literature analysis parti cularly focused on the two themes of (1) instructi ons to academic staff and (2) instructors to students. Signifi cant instructi ons have been tabulated and discussed. They hold potenti al value as guidelines for considerati on when formulati ng and improving policies for local state and non-state higher educati onal insti tutes.