What is Western’s AI policy?
The creation of policy to govern a single technology is problematic when the technology is new and rapidly evolving, with poorly understood use cases. All of Western’s existing policies apply to the use of AI. If you are a student and choose to use AI in a way that violates the rules of a course syllabus, you are violating policy on academic honesty. Rather than rush to create a single-technology policy, Western will continue to rely on our existing policies to govern our community.
Instead, please reflect on the guidance about AI use for instructors, students, researchers, and employees below.
Principles of Using AI at Western:
Experiment responsibly, safely, and ethically. Before considering specific roles and example use-cases, we suggest ethical principles that can help guide our community's engagement with generative AI:
- Transparency: The algorithms, data, and design decisions underlying AI systems, and the applications of AI systems, should be openly accessible to the extent possible.
- Accountability: Individuals and teams using generative AI bear the responsibility for the consequences of the AI's actions and decisions.
- Integrity: The use of generative AI in academic work must be clearly disclosed to preserve the principle of academic honesty.
- Privacy: Personal data should be adequately protected, and AI should not be used to infringe upon individuals' privacy rights.
- Inclusion: Accessibility and fairness in AI tools should be actively considered, ensuring they don't perpetuate existing biases.
