GalterGuides: Generative AI Guide: Generative AI Overview

Generative AI at Northwestern

This guide is meant to provide a general overview of Generative AI, including policies at Northwestern University and within the Feinberg School of Medicine. This is not a comprehensive resource, but rather a primer on this topic, intended to direct users to generative AI tools as well as resources for using these tools for teaching, writing, and researching in an ethical manner.

This guide is a work in progress. We welcome any feedback you may have at ghsl-ref@northwestern.edu.

Northwestern Guidance on the Use of Generative AI
The website from NUIT serves as a best practice and acceptable usage guide for the Northwestern community, offering insights into privacy concerns and data usage protocols tailored specifically for the guidance of our local faculty, staff, and students.
Exploring the Pedagogical Possibilities of Generative AI
A starting point for exploring the possibilities and avoiding the pitfalls of teaching in a world of AI tools, by the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching.
AI@NU
AI@NU is a community of researchers, educators, and students across Northwestern advancing artificial intelligence in theory and practice. Includes research, collaborations, education, news & events.
Instructor Resources from AI @ NU
This Northwestern resource is intended to acquaint you with GAI and to give you some suggestions for its use in the classroom. Each page on this site can serve as a standalone resource based on your background knowledge and teaching goals.
Instructional Videos from AI @ NU
This Northwestern resource highlights video content designed and produced within our community. Please note these resources are hosted on Panopto and require you to be logged in with Northwestern credentials.

Examples of GenAI Based Tools

The following are a few free-to-use tools that exist in the GenAI space. This is not a comprehensive list. Be aware that these are not endorsements by FSM.

ChatGPT utilizes one of the largest (known) datasets to power its operation and is seemingly capable of a variety of complex tasks. However, it is only as good as the information it draws from, which is currently up to date as far as 2021. It also may contain contradictory, biased, or false information.

Search-capable tools:

Bing AI (Restricted to Microsoft Edge) leverages ChatGPT in the backend to allow for a more conversational way to search the Internet.
Google Gemini is Google’s chatbot, similar to ChatGPT, with the added ability to be connected to the Internet and retrieve more current information.

These are tools that are free for individual use:

Explainpaper allows users to upload a paper, highlight confusing text, and get an explanation.
Goblin Tools is a collection of small, simple, single-task tools, mostly designed to help neurodivergent people with tasks they find overwhelming or difficult.
Codeium is a code completion and assistance tool that can assist coders in their code and improve efficiency.
CodeWhisperer is a coding companion from Amazon that can generate code suggestions based on your comments and existing code.

Many repositories for GenAI tools such as Futurepedia, Future Tools, Hugging Face Spaces, and Supertools also exist to search for tools as they further proliferate.

Use Cases for Generative AI

Ideas for experimenting with Generative AI - Harvard University
This page provides an overview of possible use cases, and important things to keep in mind before you begin experimenting. It is intended as general information only and is not a comprehensive list of all the ways in which people across the University are exploring the use of AI.