Brigham Young University AI Policy

Many concerns arise about how GenAI can be used ethically, specifically within an academic context. As a student, you are responsible for your work and how you are utilizing AI.

Many concerns arise about how GenAI can be used ethically, specifically within an academic context. As a professor, you are the arbiter of academic integrity in your classroom.

In their syllabus, faculty include guidance on when GenAI is allowed, how it should be used, and proper attribution for their course. Faculty will remind students of the policies for their specific course (see sample statement for syllabi below).

Every assignment in a CS course names one of five levels, 0 through 4. Your syllabus sets the default for the course, and an individual assignment can change it. If you are unsure which level applies, ask your instructor before you start.

Cheating is a form of dishonesty where a student attempts to give the appearance of a level of knowledge or skill that the student has not obtained. Examples include:

* Copying from another person’s work during an examination or while completing an assignment

* Allowing someone to copy from you during an examination or while completing an assignment

* Using unauthorized materials during an examination or while completing an assignment

* Collaborating on an examination or assignment without authorization

* Taking an examination or completing an assignment for another or permitting another to take an examination or to complete an assignment for you

In their syllabus, faculty include guidance on when GenAI is allowed, how it should be used, and proper attribution for their course.

## Reference

AI helps you learn. It never sees your work.

* Sees your work No

* Writes your work No

### You can

* Ask for concept explanations

* Ask what an error message means

* Ask it to quiz you or make practice problems

* Ask about instructor-provided examples

### You can't

* Paste in your code, writing, or the assignment text

* Ask for a solution to the problem you were assigned

Every assignment in a CS course names one of five levels, 0 through 4. Your syllabus sets the default for the course, and an individual assignment can change it. If you are unsure which level applies, ask your instructor before you start.

## No AI

You build it yourself.

* Sees your work No

* Writes your work No

### You can't

* Use a chatbot, for anything

* Use AI code generation or AI autocomplete in your editor

## Reviewer

AI critiques your work. You still write it.

* Sees your work Yes

* Writes your work No

### You can

* Show it your code or draft and ask what's wrong

* Ask for debugging guidance

* Ask for feedback on structure or readability

### You can't

* Submit a fix the AI wrote for you

* Ask it to rewrite, complete, or generate a solution

## Partner

You build it together. You understand all of it.

* Sees your work Yes

* Writes your work With you

### You can

* Have it write code or text you then review

* Work back and forth on a design

* Debug and refactor together

### You can't

* Submit anything you can't explain

## Full Use

AI builds it. You specify and verify it.

* Sees your work Yes

* Writes your work Yes

### You can

* Have AI generate all or most of the code

* Have AI generate tests, then refine against them

### You can't

* Submit output you haven't verified

* Skip the specification, or hand-wave how you know it works

The Teacher Education Graduate Program requires a thesis reflecting student learning on specific topics in education. In accordance with the university's Academic Honesty Policy, this thesis work is intended to be the intellectual work of the student. While Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can assist in various aspects of thesis writing, any use of AI must be clearly stated and approved by the student’s chair and committee prior to the prospectus defense with a formal statement in the final thesis.

“I acknowledge and affirm that AI tools were used during the editing process to enhance the clarity and coherence of the language used in this thesis. These tools were applied judiciously to ensure that the intellectual content and integrity of the thesis remained intact. The substantive content, ideas, and analysis presented in this work are my own and adhere to ethical standards and the university guidelines and policies regarding academic honesty.”

The committee will assess ethical considerations, disciplinary norms, validity of methods, and adherence to program and university guidelines. The use of AI will be continually monitored and specifically reassessed during the Data Meeting, and the ways it was used must be explicitly stated in a declaration in the thesis.

The committee will assess ethical considerations, disciplinary norms, validity of methods, and adherence to program and university guidelines.

The substantive content, ideas, and analysis presented in this work are my own and adhere to ethical standards and the university guidelines and policies regarding academic honesty.

In their syllabus, faculty include guidance on when GenAI is allowed, how it should be used, and proper attribution for their course. Faculty will remind students of the policies for their specific course (see sample statement for syllabi below).

While Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can assist in various aspects of thesis writing, any use of AI must be clearly stated and approved by the student’s chair and committee prior to the prospectus defense with a formal statement in the final thesis.

The use of AI will be continually monitored and specifically reassessed during the Data Meeting, and the ways it was used must be explicitly stated in a declaration in the thesis.

Intentional plagiarism is a form of intellectual theft that violates widely recognized principles of academic integrity as well as the Honor Code. Such plagiarism may subject the student to appropriate disciplinary action administered through the university Honor Code Office, in addition to academic sanctions that may be applied by an instructor.

Cheating is a form of dishonesty where a student attempts to give the appearance of a level of knowledge or skill that the student has not obtained.

In their syllabus, faculty include guidance on when GenAI is allowed, how it should be used, and proper attribution for their course. Faculty will remind students of the policies for their specific course (see sample statement for syllabi below).

Employees and students are responsible for any output they generate, regardless of GenAI use, and for ensuring the accuracy and authenticity of what they say and share—in both form and content.

ChatGPT Edu is available to eligible CES faculty and staff at BYU, BYU-Idaho, BYU-Hawaii, BYU-Pathway, and Ensign College through an enterprise agreement with OpenAI. It is not available to students.

As of May 2024, part-time and full-time employees (including student employees) now have access to Zoom AI Companion.

Despite these security measures, BYU users should still follow BYU's Data Use, Privacy, and Security policy. Specifically, best judgement should be used when deciding if Zoom AI Companion should be used in any given meeting.

These privacy principles include purpose limitation, data minimization, lawfulness, transparency, protection, and duration. If your data use, or that of an AI service, violates these principles, you must find an alternative that adheres to these privacy principles.

Unlike other versions of ChatGPT, ChatGPT Edu ensures your data stays private and secure by default. Inputs and outputs are not used to train the model and you control how long data is stored. However, it’s important to avoid uploading sensitive information, such as personal identification, academic records (FERPA-protected data), or health information (HIPAA-protected data). ChatGPT Edu offers tailored privacy settings, strict data retention controls, and institutional oversight to ensure responsible use.

This makes it safer to use but is still not approved for use with the protected information above.

Employees and students ensure that the use of GenAI respects data privacy and security, especially when handling sensitive or personal information. For example, employees will not enter private student information (like names, Net IDs, email addresses, and grades) or other sensitive content (such as proprietary or nonpublic data) into GenAI tools, per BYU’s Data Use, Privacy, and Security Policy.

ChatGPT Edu is available to eligible CES faculty and staff at BYU, BYU-Idaho, BYU-Hawaii, BYU-Pathway, and Ensign College through an enterprise agreement with OpenAI. It is not available to students.

Copilot is an AI service that takes a text prompt and generates a response based on training data which was scraped from the web. Copilot also has the ability to generate images based on text prompts. BYU has no current contract with Microsoft for the private use of Copilot.

This service is currently being evaluated for safety and privacy. Refrain from placing any Nonpublic Institutional Data into this service. Always adhere to the BYU privacy policies.

According to GitHub's published Privacy Notice and security standards, when users are using Copilot for Individuals, input data is used to train the model.

As of May 2024, part-time and full-time employees (including student employees) now have access to Zoom AI Companion.

Doing so will give users access to a version of Zoom AI Companion that, according to Zoom's privacy policies, should not train Zoom's AI models on BYU data.

AI Committee

Within the world of artificial intelligence, data privacy is a major concern. The nature of artificial intelligence, including the reliance on abundant and accurate data, lends itself to the potential abuse of personal data. Each AI model or service is different, but six privacy principles drive how data should be managed, whether when simply using a GenAI service or training a new GenAI model.

These privacy principles include purpose limitation, data minimization, lawfulness, transparency, protection, and duration.

ChatGPT Edu offers tailored privacy settings, strict data retention controls, and institutional oversight to ensure responsible use.

ChatGPT Edu is available to eligible CES faculty and staff at BYU, BYU-Idaho, BYU-Hawaii, BYU-Pathway, and Ensign College through an enterprise agreement with OpenAI.