AI usage policies

Our lab’s AI usage polices are based on a set of guiding principles:

  • Thinking is an esssential aspect of writing. If we offload our writing we thus offload our thinking, which is fundamentally in conflict with our role as scholars.
  • AI tools are meant to supplement and accelerate human expertise, not replace it.
  • A human must ultimately understand and take responsibility for all outputs that go into a publication.
  • AI usage for any aspect of a research project is a first-class decision that should be discussed beforehand.
  • Because many journals require disclosure of AI usage, it is essential to record all of the ways in which AI is used in research project.

Using AI tools

AI tools may be used for any part of the research process except for the drafting of narrative text for manuscripts or grant proposals. Lab members are expected to manually draft all of the text that they put into a paper or proposal; no copying and pasting of text directly from an LLM is allowed without explicit discussion and agreement.

When using AI tools in the research process:

  • AI tools may be used to create schematic figures but the accuracy of the figure must be double-checked and confirmed.
  • AI tools must not be used to directly generate data figures; instead, the AI tool should be used to generate code that will create the figure in a reproducible and auditable way.
  • AI tools should not be used to generate reference lists.
  • AI-generated code should be tested to ensure that it accurately solves the problem at hand; see Better Code, Better Science for more on this.

It is the researcher’s ultimate responsiblity to vouch for any AI-generated outputs, so those outputs should be validated and verified just as one would for an output from a research assistant.

Reference review

All reference lists (regardless of how they are generated) should be double-checked to ensure that the bibliographic information is correct, since it is possible that hallucinated references may start to infiltrate non-AI reference databases, and the penalties for including hallucinated references are becoming steep.

LLM Review

LLMs should be used to review all manuscripts prior to journal submission, preferably with an admonition that the LLM should not rewrite the text; rather, the author should rewrite relevant sections manually based on LLM feedback.

Collaboration

For all collaborations (internal and external), the policies for AI usage should be discussed prior to undertaking any work.

It is also the researcher’s responsibility to disclose to collaborators which outputs relied upon AI tools, and also to outline the steps that were taken to validate the AI-generated outputs. For any output, it needs to be clear what human is willing to stand by the output.

We expect all collaborators (internal and external) to adhere to this policy; any deviations must be explicitly discussed prior to the collaboration.