AI GUIDE

AI AT THE AA
WHAT IS GENERATIVE AI __________________________________________________________________________ 1
AI GUIDANCE OVERVIEW _________________________________________________________________________ 2
RISKS AND LIMITATIONS OF GENERATIVE AI _______________________________________________________ 3
AI TOOLS ________________________________________________________________________________________ 5
USING LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS _______________________________________________________________ 8
HOW CAN AI HELP YOU? ________________________________________________________________________ 10
REFRENCING AI_________________________________________________________________________________ 11
LINKS __________________________________________________________________________________________ 13

WHAT IS GENERATIVE AI

Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence, significantly expanding the traditional capabilities of AI such
as GPS, chatbots, and automated replies. Unlike earlier forms of AI, which were designed to follow specific
rules and perform predefined tasks, generative AI can create new unique and seemingly creative content.
This can include text, images, video, audio, and software code.

Generative AI models are trained on vast amounts of data collected from various sources across the
internet, including social media, Wikipedia, product reviews, books, and more. This training process
involves feeding the AI large datasets and using complex algorithms to help it learn patterns, structures,
and relationships within the data. The AI uses this information to generate content that aligns with the
patterns it has learned. The models are then fine-tuned with human testing.

While generative AI may seem novel and independently intelligent, it's important to remember that these
tools don’t truly understand the content they generate and are essentially making highly informed guesses.
Additionally, generative AI has limited access to real-time information or copyrighted content, which can
lead to outdated or limited responses.

If you would like to know more about how generative AI works explore the links below.

General AI overview:
Elements of AI – University of Helsinki
What is AI? – MIT Technology Review
Artificial Intelligence: A Very Short Introduction – Oxford University Press
Co-intelligence: living and working with AI – Ethan Mollick (book in the library)
Glossary of Terms – University of Northamption

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To understand predictions, transformers and tokenization:

Generative AI exists because of the transformer – Financial Times
The Curious Case of Spelling ‘Strawberry’: Why Simple Words Aren’t Always Simple for AI – LinkedIn
The Tokenizer Playground See how an AI tool like ChatGPT breaks down words into tokens

Explanation of Text to Image models:

AI art, explained – Vox

AI GUIDANCE OVERVIEW

AI can be a useful tool to help elevate your work but an over-reliance on these tools can prevent you from
developing key academic and professional skills you will need to complete your studies and excel in the
workplace.
AI can produce homogenous written and visual styles, these tools are aids but should be used alongside
your own research to develop personal styles, knowledge and interests. They can provide opportunities to
develop your critical thinking and evaluation skills if you take the time to effectively assess the output of AI-
generated content.

Thinking about using AI? Use the following checklist

• Check with your tutors.

o Are they happy for you to use AI, and for which parts of the assignment?
o Is it appropriate to use AI for this assignment?
• Check with yourself.
o Will using AI, or certain AI tools in specific ways, prevent you from learning in this
assignment?
• Don’t use AI on it’s own.
o AI can make mistakes and hallucinate. Always fact check information and critically evaluate
everything generated by AI.
o AI can be biased, reinforcing your own beliefs and emphasizing social biases. Always
conduct your own research outside of the AI to incorporate balanced views.
o AI doesn’t know everything. Relying on AI might limit the scope of your research and could
mean you miss key arguments or style elements.
• Check before you paste any information into an AI tool.
o Does this information belong to you?
 Yes – are you ok with the generative AI potentially using a copy of it?
 No – is it protected by copyright? Is it sensitive information?
• Reference!
o If you use AI make sure you reference, when and how you used it. Follow the referencing
guidelines.

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The official guidance on the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in student work at the AA
School of Architecture - 2.4 of Architectural Association School of Architecture Learning, Teaching and
Assessment Strategy
The AA recognises that generative AI is increasingly used in the production of student work at the school,
including, but not limited to, the creation of texts, images, codes and prompts. Although AI can be
disruptive, it also offers new opportunities for critical thinking and analysis, and opens up questions of
authorship. These are conversations that the AA is able and willing to have as a community. Therefore the
AA will embrace, rather than restrict, the use of generative AI in the production of student work. AI must
always be used ethically, with integrity and transparency, and in the spirit of invention and creativity. Staff
should be prepared to engage with students that wish to utilise AI in their work.

Students must be aware that there are issues associated with the use of generative AI that may impact their
learning in a negative way, including those of inaccuracy and bias. The databases on which AI depend are
often aggregations that are unchecked and not transparent to the user, and may themselves contain texts
and images that are plagiarised or wrongly attributed. The algorithms within AI for generating texts can
generate statements that may seem coherent in style but have no correspondence to reality or truth.
Responsibility for this therefore lies with the user, with correct citation and attribution to be used at all
times. Failure to declare the use of AI will lead to the work in question being recognised as plagiarism, and
will therefore be subject to the Plagiarism and Student Work Substitution Procedure in the AA Academic
Regulations.
Students and staff should avoid entering their own or third party personal data into generative AI as there is
a risk that such personal data will be retained by the AI platform or service.

RISKS AND LIMITATIONS OF GENERATIVE AI

PRIVACY, DATA PROTECTION AND COPYRIGHT

AI tools often use the data you input to train their models and have license agreements that allow them to
store and reuse any content that you upload. Please be mindful of the data that you are inputting into these
tools, and do not add any data that falls into the categories bellow.

DO NOT INPUT:
☐Personal data.
☐ Sensitive or confidential information about the AA, students, tutors or staff.
☐ Work produced by the AA or by people affiliated with the AA without express permission.
☐ Research data or any information collected via surveys or interviews.
☐ Commercially sensitive information.
☐ Material copyrighted by third parties, this includes any articles or books accessed through the library.

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BIAS
Generative AI can produce biased results. This is partly due to the nature of the AI’s training data and the
biases of those involved in developing and testing these products. Studies, such as Social Biases through
the Text-to-Image Generation Lens, 2023 and BiasAsker: Measuring the Bias in Conversational AI System,
2023, have demonstrated how AI tools can perpetuate stereotypes around race and gender. These biases
can be harmful and may not be immediately apparent. For example, you might not notice when an AI
system subtly favours one perspective over another.
Although AI developers are working to reduce bias by curating datasets and modifying algorithms, it is
impossible to eliminate it entirely. Moreover, developers may have their own biases and agendas. It is
crucial to stay aware of potential biases in AI-generated content and consider how these biases might
influence your research or decision-making.
AI tools can also reflect your personal biases back at you or even be manipulated to present false
information or skewed viewpoints.
What can you do?
Reflect and critically evaluate the merit of any AI generated output. Always cross-reference textual
information with reliable sources to ensure accuracy and use alongside your own research.
Question the design choices in an image and what the use of colours, backgrounds and styles might
suggest in terms of cultural, historical, or aesthetic assumptions. Consider the potential biases in the
dataset that trained the AI and how that might influence the representation or omission of certain design
elements.
Design prompts thoughtfully to produce outputs that draw on a wide range of views and voices.
Challenge the AI's Assumptions by prompting the AI to question its own responses. For example, ask it to
provide evidence for its claims or to explore counterarguments to its initial output.
Use different generative AI tools to compare outputs. Different models may offer varying perspectives,
helping you identify potential biases or gaps in the information or images.

HALLUCINATIONS

Generative AI tools often hallucinate, producing incorrect information. Because they are essentially
predictive models, they struggle with factual accuracy. This becomes apparent when you ask a generative
AI tool to provide references or links to articles; it will often give you broken links or references that do not
exist.

Some AI tools, such as Perplexity and Google’s Gemini, provide footnotes to the information they give. This
feature can be helpful for fact-checking, but you still need to review the sources to ensure that the AI has
interpreted and communicated the information correctly.

What can you do?

Verify any factual information provided by a generative AI tool by consulting reputable sources. Look for
confirmation from established and credible references.
Question the AI’s reasoning, ask the AI how it arrived at its conclusions and what sources or data it used to
generate the information. Understanding its methodology can help you assess the validity of its answers.

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When an AI provides references or footnotes, check the sources yourself. Ensure that the links are active
and that the cited material supports the claims made by the AI.

LIMITED KNOWLEDGE
AI tools are often trained on limited data. Free versions of ChatGPT-4o for example are trained on data up
until October 2023. 1 Most tools are not trained on academic articles published behind paywalls or
reputable publishers. As a result, they may not give you the most recent or novel debates around a topic.
What can you do?
Don’t use these tools in isolation. Use an AI alongside other information sources, including books and
journal articles. This approach will help you find unique arguments and a variety of perspectives.
Research the AI tools you use. What are the limits of their training data?

AI ETHICS
There is a wider ethical debate surrounding the use of AI tools. They are known to have a significant
environmental impact and have been implicated in the poor treatment and exploitation of workers. We
need to remain aware of these issues and advocate for fairer and less harmful tools and products.

What can you do?

Stay Informed. Keep up with the latest research and discussions about AI ethics, including bias and
working practices.
Consider the ethical implications of using AI tools in your research. Be mindful of the potential
consequences of biased outputs and strive to use AI in a way that promotes fairness and inclusivity.
Advocate for greater transparency from AI developers regarding how their models are trained and the
resources they employ.

AI TOOLS

CHECK LIST

If you are using a new AI tool check for the following:

☐What are the terms and conditions?

☐ Does the company store your data and how does it use it?
Look out for the selling of data to third parties and the use of your data for training the AI models.
☐ Check whether the company has rights to the content you create on the platform.
Never put any personal data or data belonging to other people into an AI tool.
☐ Does it have safeguards? Will you be exposed to unpleasant or distressing content?
☐ Do you have the correct hardware?
Tools such as Stable Diffusion require PC’s with large amounts of storage.
☐ How much training will you need to do to use the tool?

1
‘Pricing’. Accessed 10 October 2024. [Link]

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☐ How much does it cost? Is it worth the cost?

Note the following tools are not endorsed by the AA, please conduct your own research and only use tools
you are comfortable with. AI is rapidly developing so some of the following information may be out of date.

LARGE LANGUAGE MODEL’S

Here are some examples of Large Language Models. These models are primarily conversational agents,
which means you ask them questions as if you were speaking to them. They all provide written answers but
have different strengths and response styles. It is best to test out a couple of products to assess which
agent suits your needs.

AI tool Features
Chat GPT High scoring in language performance tests, good
at producing written prose. Can share chat history.

Free version with subscription tier.

Google Gemini Integrates with Google Suite, handles poor
grammar well. Can share chat history.

Free version with subscription tier.

Anthropic Claude High functionality when designing code, can
remember longer prompts. Can’t share chat
history.

Free version with subscription tier

Microsoft Co-Pilot Integrates with Microsoft 365 apps. Powered by
ChatGPT.

Paid version with limited free uses.

TEXT-TO-IMAGE GENERATORS

Adobe Firefly

Adobe Firefly is an AI tool integrated into many of the Adobe apps. You can use text instructions to enhance
images in photoshop for example. There is also a text to image application available on the web. To find out
more visit the Adobe website.

This product is included in the AA’s Adobe package which you can access as a student or member of staff.

Link to Adobe Firefly text-to-image tool

Midjourney

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Midjourney is a text to image tool that runs on Discord, a chat forum application. You will need a Discord
account to access the application, which is available through a paid subscription on the website. There is
no free version.

Midjourney is one of the most powerful and user-friendly text-to-image tools on the market, offering levels
of customization such as resolution, sizing, and how much creative flair the AI adds to your prompt.

Link to Midjourney

DALL-E

Like Midjourney DALL-E is a text-to-image tool. Created by Open AI, the company behind Chat GPT, DALL-E
is subscription based and can only be purchased as part of the paid version of Chat-GPT. However, you can
find DALL-E integrated for free, with limitations, in some apps, such as Co-Pilot.

DALL-E is simpler to use if you are new to text-to-image generators, but it does not offer as much
customisation as Midjourney.

Check out this OpenAI forum for prompting tips.

Stable Diffusion

Stable Diffusion (SD) has far more customisation than the other applications, but it is also more complex.
It’s recommended that you begin with other text-to-image tools before diving into Stable Diffusion to gain a
basic understanding of how these tools work. One of the advantages of SD is that you can train the model
on your own content and have it generate images in your unique style.

You can download SD onto your own computer if you have 4GB+ VRAM GPU. Some websites host SD for
you, but many of these require a subscription.

This reddit page contains links to useful guides, downloads and recommended content to get you started.

r/Stable Diffusion

RESEARCH HELPERS

As AI becomes more popular, more applications are integrating machine learning, including tools aimed at
students and researchers. Remember if you see an unfamiliar AI tool think about the checklist before you
use it.

The following applications are currently free.

• Research Rabbit – maps citations from research papers to help you find related research.
• Open AIRE Explore – displays linked/open data and metrics primarily for scientific research.
• Open Knowledge Maps – provides a visual overview of articles related to your chosen topic.
• JSTOR AI beta – AI integration that will summarise an article and answer questions about it.

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USING LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS

GENERATIVE AI (CHAT GPT, GEMINI, CLAUDE ETC.)

To get the most out of a generative AI tool such as ChatGPT or Gemini we recommend you use “prompt
engineering”. This is a technique that helps you structure your prompts and encourages you to refine the
AI’s answers.

C.O.S.T.

Context: Give the AI a scenario, think about the audience and your knowledge level.
“I am a university architecture student with a high school level knowledge of climate change”

Objective: Outline a clear objective, think about exactly what you want from the AI.
“Give me an overview of the biggest challenges facing building design in relation to climate change”

Style: What format do you want the answer in.

“Provide a summary in under 300 words of the biggest threats and bullet point more suggestions”

Tone: Direct the tone of the response, if you were writing an email to a tutor would you want a professional
or friendly tone?
“Write concisely and with a balanced viewpoint”
Always think about how you can improve the AI’s response, continue a dialogue with the AI tool. Review the
response and ask the AI edit it’s answer.

Improve response:
You might ask it to change the tone again.
“Write in a more neutral tone, removing any adjectives”

Or you might ask it to expand on a topic.

“Expand on the point you made about the carbon footprint of materials, give me more information on the
impact of using different materials and add information about the impact on global supply chains”

Or you could think it missed something.

“Add some information on how renewable energy sources can impact building design”

Or you are looking for more examples.

“This is a good starting point. Can you provide more examples on design suggestions”

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These are some examples to get you started. Check out this guide from the University of Sydney which has
more uses and prompt suggestions. There are many more prompting methods on the internet, search for
“AI prompt engineering” to find one that works for you.

TEXT-TO-IMAGE PROMPTING
AI image generators work differently to generative AI models which means they require a different style of
prompting. Generally, you need to lay out the following features in a AI image prompt:
The style of the image: pencil sketch, acrylic painting, 90s comic book, Claymation, hyper realistic
photography (you can specify lens or lighting types).
The subject: person, animal, machine, building, mythical creature, etc. AI tools often handle one main
subject better than multiple.
Action: reading a book, riding a bicycle, painting a mural, etc.
Description of the subject: green eyes, curly blonde hair, wearing a red jacket, holding a gold cane, or
specific characteristics of the object (rusted metal, polished wood, glowing lights, etc.).
Description of the background or surrounding area: in a library, by the beach, with a foggy forest in the
background, a plain white background, background is a bustling marketplace, etc.
AI image generators are not as good at handling essay style prompts. Instead, they are trained to match
images to words, so it is helpful to break your prompts into objects, styles and themes.
For a more detailed explanation of prompting with a focus on MidJourney check out this article.
How to write effective AI art prompts

Different models need different skills

All AI models are slightly different, relying on different training data and algorithms, but unlike large
language models text-to-image models also have different input methods. For example, DALLE-3 uses
language only whereas in MidJourney you can select the version of the model you would like to generate an
image with, the aspect ratio and change the percentage of ‘creative licence’ you give the AI. Stable
Diffusion does all of this and more and depending on the interface you use you have different amounts of
control over what you can adapt. Some models also allow you to input your own reference image/s to build
upon.

If you are new to text-to-image generation start with something simple like DALLE-3 (or the free version in
Bing Image Creator) and then research how to use some of the more advance tools once you feel
comfortable.

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HOW CAN AI HELP YOU?

EXPLAINING COMPLEX TOPICS AND PROVIDING OVERVIEWS.

• Ask AI to provide an overview of the key arguments around a topic. Bear in mind it might miss some
nuanced arguments.
• Ask AI to generate keywords or Boolean search strings for searching the library catalogue or Google
Scholar.
A guide to Boolean and Advanced search. [LINK TO BE ADDED]
• If you're unsure about a term or concept, you can ask AI for an explanation. Remember to properly
cite any definitions or information generated by AI tools.
• Always use in conjunction with other credible sources.

PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH AND STRUCTURING ESSAYS

• Use AI to help create an essay plan, which can serve as a starting point for your research. Be open to
changing and adapting this plan as you discover new information and arguments.
• After completing your research, provide the AI with a brief summary of your topic and ask it to
arrange your key points or arguments, offering multiple options. You can request explanations and a
list of benefits or drawbacks for each arrangement. Based on the point you want to make, evaluate
which structure will best support your argument.
• Don’t input your research if you are not comfortable with it being used to train AI tools.

LOOKING FOR GAPS

• You could input an outline of the topics you want to cover and ask the AI if you have missed any key
points or arguments. Carefully consider whether incorporating these suggestions would strengthen
your argument.

CONCEPTUAL VISUALIZATIONS
• Explore a written description of a building or object in AI, use the experiment to think about the
features of an object in detail. How does it feel, what style or shape does it have, how it is lit?
• Use AI to prototype complex forms or designs, then refine the details (e.g. texture, material, and
proportion) to match your creative vision in other tools like Rhino or Adobe.
• Test out different materials in a design (e.g., glass, timber, concrete) to visualize how material
choices might affect the aesthetic.
• Use text-to-image tools to simulate how your architectural design would fit into an existing
landscape (e.g., " house in the middle of a misty mountain landscape ", "floating church on a lake").
This can be done quickly to help you make design decisions that you develop more fully in your final
project.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. There are many ways you can use AI to help with your work.
Experiment and become familiar with the tools to find the ways of working with them that suit you best and
remember to be mindful of the guidance points and risks when using AI.

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REFRENCING AI

You must reference AI when you have used it in your work.

Examples of when you might reference AI include, but are not limited to:
• Quoting AI
• Translating with AI
• Using AI to plan your research
• AI assistance when structuring an essay
• Incorporating AI generated images into your work

If you have copied text from an AI tool you will need to add quotations as you would an academic article.
This is particularly relevant if you have asked an AI application to give you a definition or explanation.

It is good practice to keep a record of your conversations with AI, so you can explain to your tutors exactly
how you have used it. Applications such as ChatGPT and Claude automatically save your chat history and
you can export AI chats on platforms like ChatGPT and Google Gemini.

We follow the Chicago (Notes and Bibliography) referencing style at the AA. The official guidance on citing
AI in the Chicago styles is:

“Authors who have relied on content generated by a chatbot or similar AI tool must make it clear how the
tool has been used (either in the text or in a preface or the like). Any specific content, whether quoted or
paraphrased, should be cited where it occurs, either in the text or in a note.” – Chapter 14.112. ‘The Chicago
Manual of Style, 18th Edition’.

“An author creating an illustration adjusted from, or using data from, another source should credit that
source for reasons of professional courtesy and readers’ information. If the illustration was created by or
with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), that fact should be noted in the credit.” – Chapter 3.38. ‘The Chicago
Manual of Style, 18th Edition’.

Examples of in text citations:

The following recipe for pizza dough was generated on December 9, 2023, by ChatGPT-3.5.

When prompted by the author, ChatGPT on August 21, 2024 responded with a ‘definition of
academic integrity’ as follows...

Example of citation in a note:

1. Text generated by ChatGPT-3.5, OpenAI, December 9, 2023,

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For footnoted citations use the following order

Text generated by Name of AI

Date that the text was generated
Publisher/developer
URL, if applicable (of archived conversation)

Example of citation under image:

Fig. 3. Image generated by DALL·E 2, April 7, 2023, from the prompt “An ornate bookshelf with a
portal into another dimension.”

We recommend you also reference when you have used AI to plan or research your essay by including a
reference in the bibliography. You can reference as ‘Response to “prompt”’ or summarize how the AI as
helped you.

Examples of bibliographic records:

Google. Response to “How many copyeditors does it take to fix a book-length manuscript?” Gemini
1.0, February 10, 2024. [Link]

Open AI. Provided counter arguments to the benefits of social housing developments in the 1950s.
ChatGPT 3.5, August 15, 2024. [Link]
141e8e7dc9e9

For full guidance on referencing please refer to the Chicago Manual of Style and Cite them Right. You can
find more referencing resources including the AA Referencing guide on the library website.

TURNITIN
We use Turninit at the AA, a software that analyses levels of plagiarism in submitted work. This includes an
AI similarity report.
As many translation tools now use AI if you are translating using these tools it may be flagged by the Turnitin
software.

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LINKS

Quiz yourself. What kind of questions do you think AI can answer?

A GPT-4 Capability Forecasting Challenge
Some of these questions are very mathematical. Even if you don’t follow them, it is interesting to see the
limitations of these tools.

Use AI as a companion with these preset prompts.

More Useful Things
Some of these are aimed at high school students but using them you can see what AI is capable of.

AI outlook/Blog
One Useful Thing
Blog post about how much bigger AI might get. Follow the blog for developments and commentary on AI.

IBM What is AI?

Another introduction to AI

AI art image prompts

Artificial Intelligence Now: ChatGPT + AI Literacy Toolbox
A great library guide from the Florida International University. Also find details about other AI tools, text
prompting, outlooks and more.

Game
AI Dungeon
Game that uses generative AI for a scenario-based gameplay.

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