MC Library Research Guides: Artificial Intelligence: Using AI

Using Artificial Intelligence

Montgomery College faculty may or may not allow students to use AI when completing assignments and coursework. Be sure to check your syllabus and ask your professor if using AI is allowed in their class.

Before you use AI for an assignment, consider your needs. Why would you use AI for that task? How would it help you? Make sure to select an AI tool that is appropriate for the task.

Be sure to review and evaluate any responses that you get from AI! These tools can "hallucinate," which means they sometimes provide false responses.

Research Skills & Tips:

The tutorials below include information about using AI during the research process:

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Student Guide for AI Use - Infographic

Artificial Tool Intelligence Tools

AI tools are being developed and changing very quickly! For that reason, this guide only mentions a few. Use the directory link below to explore more. Remember: Make sure your professor allows AI before using it for an assignment.

AI Tools Directory The AI Tools Directory blog is a comprehensive collection of curated artificial intelligence software tools that cater to the needs of small business owners, bloggers, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, marketers, writers, and researchers.

Text Generation:

ChatGPT AI language model ChatGPT is able to answer your questions, provide insightful information, and engage in witty banter.
Grammarly Automated tool to eliminate grammatical errors & other writing issues. Includes an AI Writing Assistant.

Image, Audio, & Video Generation:

Adobe Firefly Adobe Firefly offers a versatile, creator-focused Generative AI for content creation and editing across various mediums. Generate custom vectors, brushes, and textures with just a few words or a sketch
Midjourney
Canva: Magic Studio

Computational AI

Wolfram Alpha Compute expert-level answers using Wolfram’s breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase and AI technology

AI text detection tools frequently provide false positives, and may not be reliable.

Researchers Develop and Test AI Text-Detector Tools "According to researchers at UMD existing AI text-detectors are susceptible to errors that comprise their efficiency at the most crucial of moments."

Getting an AI model to provide helpful responses is a skill! It involves writing prompts that tell the AI what to do. More advanced use of prompts is a skill called "prompt engineering," which has already started to show up in job postings. Learning how to interact with AI will help you to get better responses.

Make sure you understand the tool that you are using and use a prompt that is appropriate for what it can do. Some may not be set up to read large paragraphs of text, perform mathematical calculations, etc.
Make sure that you are providing "clean" data before prompting the AI tool to analyze it
Be sure to review and evaluate the accuracy of any responses that you get from AI

Suggested Resources:

Using ChatGPT Effectively Tutorial from University of Arizona Libraries
Prompting With ChatGPT Tutorial for prompting with ChatGPT.
Prompt Engineering: How to talk to the AIs. The Generative AI revolution A video on Prompt Engineering on LinkedIn
AI prompting resources available at Montgomery College RaptorSearch results on AI prompting

If you use generative AI for a class assignment, you need to disclose it. Both APA and MLA citation guidelines now include suggestions for how to cite AI.

If you use text that was generated by AI as part of a writing or other assignment, you need to cite it as you would any other source. In addition, you may be expected to explain how you used AI to develop ideas, brainstorm research questions or keywords, translate text, create an image, etc.

Suggested Resources:

Research Skills & Tips:

Cite Sources
by Niyati Pandya Last Updated Apr 5, 2024 6819 views this year

Academic Integrity Tutorial (Credo)

Need Help with AI?

If you decide to use AI and need assistance, the MC Library can help you:

Find sources that will help you understand and use AI
Confirm whether sources that you find through generative AI are real and available
Cite content generated by AI in APA or MLA format