The University has adopted formal guidelines for faculty, staff, and students to ensure that generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools are responsibly integrated into administrative work. Use of such tools must be beneficial, ethical, aligned with the University’s core values, and comply with existing policies regarding technology use at WVU.
When considering the use of AI for management purposes, apply the following core principles:
- Use your IT purchase request process to ensure the tools you use are secure, including any planned use of free software.
- Ensure data privacy and security. Do not input personally identifiable information (PII), confidential data, or other sensitive data into the Generative AI Tool unless expressly authorized through the IT purchase request process. The Generative AI Tool cannot guarantee compliance with the WVU Information Privacy Policy.
- Understand their capabilities and limitations: AI tools create new content by predicting what will come next in a pattern, and as a result, the generated content may be inaccurate, misleading, completely fabricated, or contain copyrighted material.
- Be transparent when using AI-generated content. Be clear and open, especially in areas that influence decision-making or policy-making. Ask yourself whether a reasonable person would want or expect to know that you used generative AI, and explain how you did so.
- Be accurate and inclusive to avoid unintended harm: carefully review the data produced for bias and accuracy before sharing, and prioritize universally accessible and inclusive content.
Currently, the only AI services approved for use in the WVU environment are the Blackboard/Anthology AI Design Assistant in eCampus Ultra and the basic version of Microsoft Copilot available for free through your university-issued Microsoft 365 account. WVU employees should not purchase other versions of Copilot as they are not approved for use.
The guidelines will evolve as AI technology advances, but currently cover the use of AI in communications, data analysis, document management, customer service, equipment monitoring, personalized marketing, budget data, meeting transcription, audio and video production, and software coding.
The Student Academic Honesty Policy prohibits the misuse of tools that generate or substantially edit content, such as Grammarly, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, etc. Students may use AI tools only with permission from their instructor.
Instructors are free to determine what tools they use in their courses and how they document their use, however, AI tools may not be purchased or implemented without a fully approved IT purchase request.
If you have any questions, please contact infosec@mail.wvu.edu.
