This guide is designed to help students and faculty at Hinds Community College understand and navigate the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Have you ever used a Snapchat filter, asked Siri for the weather, or seen Netflix recommend a movie? If so, you've used AI! While it might seem like a new "buzzword," AI is already a part of our daily lives. This guide will help you understand the basics, use it responsibly in your coursework, and prepare for its impact on your future career.
Questions? Remember, your librarians are here to help! Stop by the front desk or use our "Ask a Librarian" chat service.
You've probably heard a lot about tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Co-Pilot, and Midjourney. These are types of generative AI.
Think of it like this: Regular AI can analyze information, but generative AI can create new things based on the information it has learned. It can write essays, create images, compose music, or write computer code.
Because these tools can create content that looks like it was made by a human, it's very important to understand how to use them ethically and properly for your college work.
August 2025: MLA and APA have both released updated guidance on how to cite generative AI in your papers. See the "Using AI Ethically & Responsibly" section below for examples.
July 2025: A new study highlights potential biases in AI image generators. This is a great reminder to always think critically about the information and images AI provides.
May 2025: Several major companies have announced new AI-powered features for their software, including Adobe and Microsoft.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): A broad field of computer science focused on creating smart machines capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence.
Simple Analogy: Think of a calculator. It performs a human task (math) very quickly. AI is like a much more advanced calculator that can work with language, images, and ideas.
Generative AI: A subset of AI that can create new, original content (text, images, code, etc.) based on the data it was trained on.
Simple Analogy: Think of your phone's predictive text feature that suggests the next word in your sentence. Generative AI is like that, but it can predict the next paragraphs, a whole essay, or a complete image.
ChatGPT (from OpenAI): A text-based chatbot that can answer questions, write essays, summarize text, and help with coding.
Gemini (from Google): A multimodal AI that can work with text, images, and code. It is integrated into many Google products.
Midjourney / DALL-E 3: Image generation tools. You describe an image in text (a "prompt"), and the AI creates it for you.
Grammarly: A writing assistant that uses AI to check for grammar, spelling, and tone.
Consensus / Elicit: AI-powered search engines designed for finding academic research papers.
Large Language Model (LLM): The technology behind chatbots like ChatGPT. It's trained on vast amounts of text from the internet so it can understand and generate human-like language.
Prompt: The instruction, question, or text you give to an AI to get a response. Learning to write good prompts is a key skill!
Hallucination: When an AI makes up facts, sources, or information. This happens because the AI's goal is to be helpful and provide a fluent answer, not necessarily a truthful one. This is why you must always fact-check AI-generated content.
This is the most important question for you as a student. The answer is: It depends.
Submitting work generated by an AI as your own without permission or citation is plagiarism and a violation of the Hinds Community College Academic Honesty Policy.
Think of AI like a powerful tutor or a calculator:
It's okay to use a calculator to check your math homework. It's not okay to have someone else do the homework for you and you put your name on it.
It's okay to use AI to brainstorm ideas, create an outline, or check your grammar. It's not okay to ask it to write your essay and submit that as your own work.
Your instructor's policy is the final word. Always check your syllabus or ask your professor about their specific rules for using AI in their class.
If your instructor allows you to use AI, you must cite it. Here are the most current formats.
MLA 9th Edition
Provide a description of the prompt you used in the text. Then, create a Works Cited entry.
Works Cited Entry: "Brief description of the prompt" prompt. Name of AI Tool, version, Day Month Year, Company, URL of tool.
Example: "Provide a summary of the causes of the American Revolution" prompt. ChatGPT, GPT-4 version, 12 Aug. 2025, OpenAI, chat.openai.com.
APA 7th Edition
In APA style, you treat the AI's output as a personal communication or cite the algorithm's creator. The official guidance is to provide the prompt used and then the AI's response in the text of your paper, followed by a citation.
Reference List Entry: Company that made the AI. (Year). Name of AI tool (Version number) [Large language model]. URL
Example: OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com
Using AI responsibly is about more than just avoiding plagiarism. What other ethical questions should you consider?
Bias: AI models are trained on data from the internet, which contains human biases. An AI might generate text or images that reflect racial, gender, or cultural stereotypes. How can you spot and correct for this bias?
Privacy: What happens to the information you type into a prompt? Most companies use your conversations to further train their AI. Never put personal, sensitive, or confidential information into a public AI tool.
Misinformation: Since AIs can "hallucinate," they can create very convincing but completely false information. How can you develop the skills to fact-check what an AI tells you?