Consider these guidelines if you plan to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the process of creating or adapting your open textbook.

What is Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

For the purposes of this guide, generative artificial intelligence refers to a type of artificial intelligence that is used to create images, text, audio, video, computer code and other types of content via text prompts from a user. Generative AI can be in the form of a standalone tool or can be incorporated or integrated into other content creation tools.

Examples of generative AI tools

The following table shows some examples of the types of tools that are considered generative AI for the purposes of these guidelines.

Ways You Could Use Generative AI in Your Open Textbook Creation Process

Here are some ways that generative AI could be used when creating or adapting open textbooks:

• To create question sets, case studies, and other types of instructional resources.
• To analyze a photo to create alt text for accessibility purposes.
• To create illustrations and photo-realistic images for both decorative and instructional purposes.
• To generate scripts that can be used for videos and podcasts.
• To create instructional videos.
• To generate sentences, paragraphs, and chapters for a textbook.
• To analyze and create summaries of longer sections of text.
• To automate the creation of an audio version of text, usually for accessibility purposes.
• To translate text to another language.

Prompt Engineering Tips

• Instruction: ensure you give detailed instructions in your prompt. It can help to phrase the prompt as a task.
  • Think of tasks in terms of verbs like create, summarize, formulate, synthesize, generate, etc.
• Context: adding context in your prompt can help the Generative AI give a more relevant and tailored response.
  • You can add context by explaining your role, the AI’s role, or the expected outcome.
• Persona: ask the AI to take on a persona to guide the response.
  • You can ask the AI to take on the persona of an expert or an instructor: “Act as an Expert” or “Act as an Instructor of [x] subject].
• Tone and Style: include directions for the tone, style, or format you would like for the AI’s response.
  • For example, you can ask for a bulleted list of 10 questions styled in an educational tone.
• Examples: providing examples can help ensure the AI gives the type of result you are looking for.
  • You can give a pre-existing example of the type of output you need.

Intentional vs. Unintentional Use

With the proliferation of generative AI tools and the integration of these tools into other software packages, you may not know that a tool you are using to create learning materials is using generative AI. Therefore, these guidelines are intended to be interpreted with leniency and flexibility to allow for the possibility that generative AI use may not always be visible or apparent to the person who is using a tool.

Considerations and Risks

While these tools can be of great value, there are numerous ethical concerns and potential risks to be aware of when you consider using generative AI tools in the process of creating your open textbook.

1. Lack of transparency. The source of the training data and the programming logic used by many generative AI tools is not always made available to the public. Indeed, even the companies that develop the tools may not be able to explain exactly how they work, or how they arrived at the outputs they did.
2. Bias. Because there is a lack of transparency in how the tools are constructed and what data is used to train them, this can lead to biases being present in the output.
3. Accuracy. Generative AI systems can sometimes produce inaccurate or made-up answers (also referred to as hallucinations).
4. Intellectual property (IP) and copyright. As the Canadian legal landscape continues to evolve around copyright considerations regarding use of copyright-protected content to train AI models, as well as the copyright status of generated output content, email copyright@macewan.ca for up-to-date information.
5. Sustainability. Generative AI uses massive amounts of electricity to operate, which has led to examinations as to how environmentally sustainable generative AI is.

Guidelines and Recommendations

1. Be cautious with your use of AI generated content. AI generated content is an area that is in considerable flux and best practices may change as the field evolves.
2. Review and assess all AI generated content for accuracy, appropriateness, and usefulness before including it in your open textbook. Only use generative AI to generate content for areas or subjects where you have the appropriate level of knowledge or understanding to verify the accuracy of the output content.
3. Review AI generated content for bias, including language or images that reinforce cultural or societal stereotypes around race, ethnicity, colour, ancestry, place of origin, political beliefs, religion, marital status, family status, ability, sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, and class and/or socioeconomic status.
4. Be transparent about your use of generative AI. Just like attributing the reuse of open content, consider including statements within your open textbook that let others know that you have used generative AI in the creation of the open textbook. This may include:
   1. what content was generated
   2. what tools were used to generate the content, including links to the tool,
   3. how you used that tool (i.e., what prompts was the tool given that generated the content)
   4. the date the content was generated
   5. what steps were taken to review the content to ensure it was valid and correct.
5. Avoid generating content that may include content that is protected by a trademark or patent (i.e., logos, recognizable characters, etc.).

References

Bommasani, R., Klyman, K., Longpre, S., Kapoor, S., Maslej, N., Xiong, B., Zhang, D., & Liang, P. (2023). The Foundation model transparency index (arXiv:2310.12941). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2310.12941

Gartner. (n.d.). Generative AI: What is it, tools, models, applications and use cases. Gartner. Retrieved July 5, 2023, from https://www.gartner.com/en/topics/generative-ai

Lalonde, C. (2023, March 6). ChatGPT and open education. https://bccampus.ca/2023/03/06/chatgpt-and-open-education/

Li, P., Yang, J., Islam, M. A., & Ren, S. (2023). Making AI less “thirsty”: Uncovering and addressing the secret water footprint of AI models (arXiv:2304.03271). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2304.03271

Sabzalieva, E.,, & Valentini, A. (2023). ChatGPT and artificial intelligence: A quick start guide. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000385146.locale=en

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2023). Guidance for generative AI in education and research. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000386693

University of Waterloo Copyright Advisory Committee. (2023, August 15). Generative artificial intelligence. https://uwaterloo.ca/copyright-at-waterloo/teaching/generative-artificial-intelligence