AI tools are here; use them wisely.
Did you know that UC Berkeley students have access to a wide range of artificial AI-powered tools? Whether you’re studying for an exam or wanting live captioning for an online meeting, you can choose to explore many AI tools via your @berkeley.edu email address. Find out which licensed generative AI tools are available for UC Berkeley. For a quick “tip sheet” on AI tools and policies, the Berkeley AI Hub website has a lot of useful information!
Which AI tools are Berkeley students able to access?
The AI landscape is rapidly changing, but here are some AI tools available to students in the Berkeley AI Hub as of writing this article:
Google Gemini. Gemini is a large language model (LLM) with which you can have conversations to help with brainstorming, generating images, and exploring high-level concepts.
NotebookLM. Simply upload your files into NotebookLM and ask it to summarize your lecture notes! NotebookLM can also make flashcards, design practice exams, and even create a podcast where two AI hosts discuss the topic you’re studying.
Zoom AI Companion. The AI assistant for Zoom meetings, Zoom’s AI Companion can generate meeting summaries and in-meeting questions. Before using this tool, you’ll have to complete a training on AI Essentials to ensure you’ve got all the information you need to use AI Companion effectively.
Glean. If you have an accommodation for specialized assistance for note-taking during lecture, you can sign up for Glean through the Disabled Students Program and let the AI software take notes for you. You can also use Glean to create transcriptions for audio notes. To gain access to Glean, contact your DSP Specialist.
Guidance on AI use
Be mindful that individual professors may have strict rules about AI use for their courses. Note that unapproved use of such tools would be addressed under the Code of Student Conduct (section 102.01), which encompasses cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, and facilitating academic dishonesty.
Check your syllabus or talk to your instructor for each class about use of AI, restrictions, and other policies specific to your course. Note that using generative AI tools in a way that is unacceptable to the course instructor, as stated in the course syllabus, may be considered a case of academic misconduct. Talk to each of your professors to learn about their AI approach!
“In all cases, use should be consistent with UC Berkeley’s Principles of Community and the UC Principles of Responsible AI,” as stated, along with more detailed information, on the website of the Office of Ethics, Risk, and Compliance Services.
Do’s and don’ts of AI
In general, it’s best practice to use AI only as a tutor. This means that you might ask AI for feedback or to enhance your current understanding, not to do your homework for you outright. A study by MIT showed that over-reliance on AI can hurt memory recall and scale down cognitive activity; there are ways to benefit from using AI tools without outsourcing your learning to a computer in the process!
Do: talk to your instructor about their AI approach.
Don’t: make assumptions about the guidelines for a class.
Do: use AI to create study schedules to prepare for exams.
Don’t: ask AI to take your exam for you.
Do: ask AI to conduct a preliminary web search on a topic you’re studying.
Don’t: believe or cite facts or statistics that you haven’t verified yourself.
Do: If permitted, keep track of where you’ve used AI so you can cite it if necessary; you can use a word processor that tracks writing, like Google Docs, so you have a record of your work.
Don’t: plagiarize LLM-written content by excluding citations.
Stay informed: what are the pros and cons of AI?
AI can be helpful for iterative and continuous work. For example, an internet search engine can answer a specific query, but it can’t always anticipate and provide answers for follow-up questions; this is where AI comes in handy! AI also has uses outside of just chat functionality. If you’re creating a flyer or virtual design, for instance, AI can provide ideas that align with your theme and other requirements.
If you choose to interact with AI, remember to check all guidelines and use your best judgment. As UC Berkeley students, we’re lucky to have a front-row seat to many new tools and technologies. Our role is to take it all in and maximize our learning during our time here, in whichever way feels most impactful to us.
Reva Gokhale, class of 2027, is majoring in data science and environmental economics and policy.