Using gen AI tools effectively involves:

• Choosing the right tool for the task at hand
• Crafting prompts that generate the output you want/expect
• Using the tools ethically and with integrity

While this section of the guide focuses on crafting prompts and evaluating and choosing specific tools, keep in mind the following:

• Only use these tools within the guidelines established by instructors and the college's Academic Integrity policy.
• Evaluate any AI-generated content and sources you plan to use in your work. 
• If you use gen AI, say that you did! Make sure to document or acknowledge the parts of the work created by the gen AI tool.
• Do not include anyone's personal information in your prompts, whether it is your own or someone else's.

Schuloff (2024) defines prompt engineering as "the process of refining a prompt over time in order to improve its capabilities in responding to user inputs."

To use gen AI tools effectively, you need to know the right questions to ask and how to phrase them for the best results. Vague or generic questions generate vague or generic results. (In other words, 'garbage in, garbage out.')

Tips for crafting prompts to get the best results from gen AI tools:

• Use the CLEAR Framework
  • Concise
  • Logical
  • Explicit
  • Adaptive
  • Reflective
• Be specific about the format of the output - number of words or paragraphs, writing style or tone, reading level, formatting such as bullet points, a table, html, css, etc.
• Instruct the tool to take on an expert role: for example, "act as a mathematician" or "take on the role of a professional news blogger" or "I want you to act as a Linux terminal."
• Provide the tool with examples or a reference text.
• Split complex tasks into simpler subtasks. 
• Beware of hallucinations. That is, gen AI tools often confidently state incorrect or invented information. Always evaluate the tool's work. Treat the tool like a brand-new workplace assistant who is eager to please but doesn't know what they don't know. Also, ChatGPT and other gen AI tools often make up citations and references to sources that simply do not exist.

AI Tutor Pro, created by Contact North/Nord, is a free tool offering two main functions:

• Check your knowledge of a topic.
• Grow your knowledge or skills on a topic.

How to use it:

1. Type https://www.aitutorpro.ca into a web browser and choose whether you want to check or grow your knowledge.
2. Choose a topic that you want to explore and be as specific as possible. You can also upload your own file or information to enhance your knowledge.
3. Choose the topic difficulty level (introductory, intermediate, or advanced).
4. Since AI Tutor Pro supports multiple languages, choose your preferred response language.
5. Pick the learning level that most suits you: elementary, high school, undergraduate, or professional.
6. Click the start button to begin. The AI program will now start asking you questions about the topic of your choice.

Limitations:

• This AI program only asks questions to encourage exploration and critical thinking, rather than providing direct answers.
• Some of the questions may seem repetitive.
• When you provide your own content (through uploading or copying and pasting) it only explores that material in a general way and won’t rephrase or explain your input.
• The checking your knowledge function doesn’t offer a score or assessment; it just continues asking questions until you decide to stop.

Many tech reviewers have published comparisons between popular AI chatbots, but the landscape changes rapidly.

This guide primarily features free and freemium tools. We do not recommend subscribing to any particular tools. Unless you need a feature that is unique to another tool, we also highly recommend choosing chatbots that connect to the internet and provide links so that you can verify their claims.

Microsoft Copilot (also known as Bing)

ChatGPT

Claude

Google Gemini (formerly known as Bard)

Meta AI

Meta's popular, open source Llama model powers many different tools. Meta AI's assistant is available as a stand-alone app and infused throughout Meta's products like Facebook and Instagram. The assistant in Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp messengers is designed to provide personalized and empathetic responses, understand context and nuances of human conversations, and offer creative solutions and ideas.

Poe

Other chatbots and tools

If you are working on a project that requires citations, you want to confirm the generative AI chatbot's information sources, or you are seeking information newer than would be included in the chatbot's large language model (LLM), you will want to use a generative AI tool with internet search capabilities like Microsoft Copilot (Bing Chat) or Google SGE (Search Generative Experience).

Most AI image generating sites operate on a freemium model where users are allotted a set number of credits. For many tools, the credits reset daily or monthly, but some tools provide only a one-time allotment. Users who pay for accounts can generally unlock more credits and/or premium features. We do not recommend paying for any sites without further research.

OpenAI / DALL·E

DALL-E is OpenAI's text-to-image model. DALL-E 3 is included in a ChatGPT Plus subscription or available for free via Copilot Design.

Meta

Stable Diffusion and SD-powered tools

Stable Diffusion is a family of popular open source text-to-image models created by Stability AI. Anyone can download and run the code on their own PC, and a plethora of generative AI sites have incorporated Stable Diffusion code into their tools in both its original form and modified through low-ranking adaptation (LoRA), an AI training technique that helps to fine-tune the models.

Popular free tools

Midjourney