Artificial intelligence in UL

UL as a science university is oriented towards an open and innovative study environment where technological innovations, their development and responsible use in the study process and research are supported.

Important aspects for the UL are: 

• the professional growth of teaching staff’s ability to apply innovative teaching and learning methods, to learn new technologies and include them in studies;
• the opportunity to offer students the acquisition of new digital skills required in the work environment, using current tools and opportunities, to ensure the competitiveness of UL graduates in the labour market.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have experienced rapid development these past few years, they have created new opportunities to use them in work, studies, and everyday life. Considering the ever-growing range of generative AI tools and their accessibility to the wider public, their introduction in the study process and the challenges connected to them are inevitable.

Generative AI is created and trained on a large amount of data, including databases and millions of Internet pages, for example, ChatGPT, DALL-E, Copilot, Gemini, Grok, Sora etc. Generative AI can create new content, e.g., images, text, speech, video, music, structured data, computer programs etc., according to the instructions or prompts given by the person.

Teaching staff of the UL can permit or prohibit the use of AI tools in their study course. The use of AI tools depends on the intended goals and study results of each study course. Prohibited or unauthorised use of AI tools in the study process is considered the use of unauthorised aids which is a breach of academic integrity.

UL has created Guidelines for the Use of Artificial Intelligence, the goals of which are:

• to help employees and students to orient themselves to the opportunities provided by the generative AI and to be aware of the risks connected to their use;
• to offer conceptual solutions for lowering the risks posed by using AI;
• to inform about the ethical aspects of AI tools;
• to foster responsible, honest, and creative use of AI tools in the study process.

UL employees and students use the opportunities provided by the AI responsibly and ethically abiding by the Regulations for Academic Integrity at the University of Latvia, and The Academic Ethics Codex of the University of Latvia, and other binding regulations.

General risks that one should be aware of when using AI tools:

• Data security. When entering information into generative AI tools, there is a possibility of leaking sensitive or even confidential data. Many AI tools have an unclear use of data.
• Biases embedded in the product. It has been observed that content generated by generative AI tools may contain social biases and stereotypes, and this content may be offensive.
• Trustworthiness of the content. The information provided by AI may be erroneous, inaccurate, or even misleading, so one should always make sure that it is correct.
• Unfair and discriminatory business practices. 
• Copyright infringement. Content created by generative AI may contain plagiarism of another author's work.

If AI is used in the work or studies, it is necessary to provide a reference to it.

Ways how it is possible to reference the AI tools used: