14 Risks and GenAI
How does GenAI use our prompts?
You should assume that anything you add into a public GenAI tool might not stay private. The information you provide (prompts and uploads) could be used to help train the AI models further. This is often explained in the “terms of use” or “service agreements” for these tools, which we all read carefully, right?
The University of Minnesota offers GenAI tools that do not use your data to train GenAI models. However, even with these tools, you should still assess appropriate use and privacy. Depending on the tool, your prompts and outputs remain in the system for days or weeks and you can’t delete them.
Assess safe vs. risky GenAI use:
It might seem harmless and fun to ask a GenAI tool for a recipe using ingredients from your fridge, or to create an image Goldy Gopher in a dinosaur costume. But it becomes very risky if you upload or include:
- Copyrighted materials (like articles or books you don’t own, this includes course materials, like your instructor’s slides).
- Personal information about people in your dorm.
- Secret or confidential data from your lab or job.
Using other’s work:
- Publishers often have rules (through their licenses) that prevent you from uploading research papers, magazine articles, and newspaper articles (including those you use for class) to outside services like GenAI tools.
- Do not upload materials created by others or licensed materials unless you have clear permission. For more information, read the Libraries’ “Acceptable Use of Electronic Resources Policy. You also should check with your instructors before uploading any course material that they’ve provided.
Risky uses in education
There are also concerns about how GenAI is used in education. For example, GenAI plagiarism checkers or “AI detectors” frequently misclassify work as written by GenAI, especially work written by multilingual students. Many students are also concerned about their work (course assignments, artistic projects, code) being uploaded to GenAI by their instructors, as well as their instructor’s use of GenAI tools for course development.
