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Generative AI at the River Campus Libraries

Strategies and tools for using GenAI in research. For help, contact AILiteracy@library.rochester.edu.

What is Generative AI?

Generative AI (GenAI) are tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot, Elicit, and Midjourney.  User inputs ("prompts") allow the programs to generate responses as an output.  These tools are trained on data found throughout the Internet, including text, images, code, and proprietary databases.  Some examples of GenAI tools include:

  • Large Language Models (LLMs):  ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot, DeepSeek.  The most common and famous type of GenAI, these create text from user prompts.
  • Research:  ResearchRabbit, Elicit, SciteAI.  These tools specialize in analyzing user prompts to recommend and summarize academic papers.
  • Art:  MidJourney, ChatGPT's DALL-E 3, Adobe Firefly.  These generate images from user prompts.

Advisory

GenAI tools can pass on your conversation data to the company to train future models.  Sensitive data — including personal identifying information, health information, or research data — should never be sent to any unapproved program.  The University of Rochester Office of the Provost recommends that all patrons utilize the University of Rochester chatbot with their UR credentials whenever inputting sensitive data.

Faculty and staff with Microsoft accounts may also log in to access to Bing Enterprise, which has less robust data protection.