Ethics and Influence of AI
Provides the rationale for restrictions of AI in coursework.
This STS course policy explains the rationale, including goals for students, behind the restriction of AI use in classwork.
Course
STS 164 "Ecosystems of Power: The Ethics and Influence of AI"
Winter 2024
Instructor
Alice Fox
AI Policy Statement
While artificial intelligence (AI) tools can be valuable in certain contexts, in this course it is important that students develop their own skills and abilities to research, think critically, and communicate without the use of this technology. Further, as many of these tools rely upon other sources of human writing to train, they can inadvertently reproduce bias and misinformation (as we will learn!).
Accordingly, much of the writing completed in this course will be evaluated on the strength, coherence, soundness, validity, and clarity of your arguments and justification. If you cannot justify why you selected a certain quote or validate that it is actually true, because it was generated by AI, your grade will suffer more than if your writing and ideas are simply in need of additional revising or refinement.
For this class, all assignments should be written in your own words. Just as you cannot take credit for others’ writing in your assignments, you cannot use paraphrasing software (“spinbots”) or AI writing software (like ChatGPT) and submit the output as your own. Doing so in this is a violation of the Stanford Honor Code. At the beginning of the quarter, we will identify examples of AI tools and discuss what constitutes plagiarism, cheating, and academic dishonesty. This will help to ensure that we are all on the same page about the policies for this course and how they connect to our learning outcomes.
Many campus resources are available and I am committed to helping you learn how to write and argue effectively and creatively without the risks these tools present. I welcome you to visit for the consulting time or set up an appointment to chat about the use of AI or any other topics! Please also check out the Learning Resources section of this syllabus, which includes information about tutors and coaches, who can provide guidance to help you hone even stronger writing (or other academic) skills beyond this course. Further, editing tools, such as Grammarly, are perfectly fine to use to improve readability and style.