King's approach to AI is rooted in our commitment to academic integrity—to being a community of learning that embodies honesty, fairness, and mutual respect.
An AI chat tool – also referred to as a large language model (LLM) – is a software application that you use by typing plain-English questions or instructions, often referred to as “prompts.” It responds with generated text such as summaries, drafts, answers, translations, formatted content, and more.
At King’s, we have licenses for Claude (Anthropic), ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Microsoft Copilot. Always use one of these approved platforms. Never use personal or free consumer accounts for work tasks.
While there are many resources, the best way to get comfortable with AI is to use it and experiment with it. The quality of the AI response is almost entirely determined by your prompt. Section 3 of King’s AI Onboarding Guide is a useful guide to help you create strong prompts.
King's University College does not currently maintain a standalone AI policy. Rather, the use of AI tools and services is governed by the College's existing policies, standards, and procedures, in the same manner as any other technology, information resource, or third-party service.
Members of the King's community who use AI technologies are expected to comply with all applicable institutional policies, including but not limited to those related to:
The use of AI does not exempt you from your responsibilities regarding the appropriate collection, use, disclosure, storage, and protection of institutional data. You remain accountable for ensuring that information entered into or generated by AI systems is handled in accordance with established King's requirements and that any outputs are reviewed for accuracy, appropriateness, and compliance.
As AI technologies continue to evolve, King's will monitor developments and may issue additional guidance, standards, or policy updates as needed. Until such time, AI tools should be treated as any other information technology resource and used in accordance with King's existing governance framework.
While AI tools can improve productivity, support research, and assist with drafting and analysis, they must be used thoughtfully and appropriately. Ethical considerations, privacy obligations, and human judgment should remain at the centre of their use.
AI is a support tool. You should recognize its strengths, and its limitations. It is not a replacement for professional judgment, institutional processes or approved systems. AI can make mistakes and its output should be reviewed carefully. You are responsible for the accuracy, appropriateness and compliance of any content produced.
Here are our principles to guide your engagement with generative AI:
Appropriateness: Ensure that your use of AI supports the mandates of King’s.
Integrity: Clearly disclose the use of generative AI in academic work. Cite or acknowledge AI when it plays a meaningful role in your work.
Privacy: Protect personal data. Do not input confidential, personal or sensitive information into public AI tools. Section 2 of King’s AI Onboarding Guide can guide you through important privacy considerations, if you're collecting or working with personal data. You can also visit Western's Legal Counsel website to learn about Privacy Impact Assessments.
Accountability: You are responsible for AI-generated outputs. Always review and fact-check what AI produces – don’t assume it's accurate, unbiased, or appropriate for your context.
Inclusion: Consider accessibility and fairness. AI tools can reflect or amplify existing biases.
Transparency: Be forthright about when and how you're using these tools. At the same time, the organizations developing, deploying, or procuring AI systems should be as transparent as reasonably possible about how the AI works; what data it was trained on or relies upon; what assumptions, rules or design choices were made; what limitations, biases or risks are known to exist; and how decisions or outputs are generated.
Read King's AI Onboarding Guide, which will answer many of your questions.
For more information, you can visit Western’s information on AI, including the Resources section.