Using AI Safely and Honestly

Introduction

AI tools are powerful, and the way you use them matters. This lesson covers three habits: protect your information, notice unfairness, and be honest about your use of AI.

Protect your information

Treat what you type into an AI tool as something you are sharing with a company. Many services store conversations, and some may use them to improve their products unless you change a setting. Read the tool's privacy settings.

Do not paste in:

Passwords or secret keys
ID, bank or health details
Private information about other people
Confidential work or school material you are not allowed to share

If you need help with something sensitive, remove the personal details first. For example, write "a customer" instead of a real name.

Quick quiz

Which is the safest thing to paste into a public AI chatbot?

Notice bias

AI learns from human writing, which includes unfair patterns. It may describe some groups in a stereotyped way or give worse answers for some languages or regions. If an answer feels one-sided, ask for other viewpoints and check with other sources.

Copyright and credit

AI output can resemble existing work. Do not present AI text or images as entirely your own creation if the rules say otherwise, and follow the licence of anything you reuse. When in doubt, give credit and check the rules of the place you are publishing.

Use AI honestly

In school: follow your teacher's rules. If AI is allowed, say how you used it. Use it to understand, not to skip the learning.
At work: follow your company's policy and check the output yourself. You are responsible for what you send.
For learning: try the problem first, then ask AI to explain or give a hint. You learn more that way.

Try it yourself

Write your own three personal rules for using AI, such as "I never paste private details" and "I check facts that matter". Keep them somewhere you will see them.

Summary

Do not share passwords, private details or other people's information with AI tools.
AI can be biased, so look for other viewpoints.
Be honest about using AI, follow the rules, and keep learning yourself.