This assignment has a dual purpose. On one hand it aims to provide students the opportunity to engage critically with AI technology while also deepening their understanding of the subject matter of the course. By requiring students to construct a detailed and researched AI prompt, the exercise effectively combines technological literacy with traditional academic skills such as critical thinking, research, structuring their positions and research questions, and ultimately analysis. Students are called upon to engage with their chosen topic, drawing on scholarly sources, such as scopus-indexed articles, books or reputable blogs, to inform their prompts, ensuring the discussion is rooted in established academic discourse.

This process helps them enhance their knowledge on the subjects under study material, and contribute to the development of their abilities to transform complex ideas into specific and actionable instructions for AI. Furthermore, the logic behind this exercise is to help them comprehend better the AI’s capabilities, as well as limitations, within the academic context, and blend more traditional learning methods, namely research based on scholarly work, with the continuously evolving tools (and agents) of the future.

In requiring students to assess AI responses, the assignment encourages them to evaluate the AI's output critically, by examining dimensions such as accuracy, bias, and omissions. This forces them to juxtapose the AI’s generated content against scholarly literatur, as well as their own personal experiences and biases. This aspect of the assignment is particularly useful in developing a critical mindset towards AI. It encourages students to not only assess the factual information provided by AI, but also to be aware of and identify potential biases in how the information is presented.

Moreover, it helps students recognize gaps in knowledge that may arise from the inherent limitations of AI systems. This process of critical evaluation and self-reflection, also helps students gain a deeper understanding of the usefulness of AI based on the quality student’s input and effort, concurrently allowing helping them learn to use AI more effectively and responsibly.

Ultimately, this exercise demonstrates how AI can be a tool for enhancing learning and research. By refining prompts to extract the most insightful AI responses, students gain experience in using AI to deepen and broaden their academic inquiries, learning to leverage technology as a ‘co-pilot’ in research rather than a mere source of (potentially incorrect) answers.

This approach supports the development of critical thinking in how to best utilize AI in academic and professional settings, ultimately empowering students to harness AI effectively in support of their educational, and perhaps more importantly, their future professional goals. Thus, the assignment serves as a stepping stone for integrating AI literacy into the broader academic curriculum, preparing students for the world that is inevitably shaped by AI technologies.

Here is the assignment:

A.I. Assignment

You are expected to generate one AI-based discussion based on the assigned readings/material. Please note that this a very important assignment that requires work and prior research, which means it is NOT an assignment that would take 5 minutes of thought and a one-line prompting attempt. You need to spend a considerable time thinking about the idea and topic, after you have read the week’s material.

- You are free to choose any topic you like (you need to choose only 1 throughout the semester) and you are required to create a prompt for the AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.) that would facilitate an analysis on the subject you chose. Specifically, you should choose a relevant weekly topic and choose the ‘angle’ of that topic as it is related to the course – e.g. defense economics of autonomous warfare – and engage in a ‘discussion’ with the AI on how that ‘angle’ you have chosen influences the specific issue.

- Part 1: Prompt: The prompts must be very detailed (around 700-1000 words, and as specific as possible, with a topic that is well researched PRIOR to submitting the prompt). Thus, creating the prompt requires some work, research, sources that you can provide the A.I., etc. In general, anything that would AVOID generalizations. Your prompt must demonstrate a deep understanding of the topic by incorporating insights from at least three scholarly sources (peer-reviewed articles, books, or reputable policy reports). You should reference these sources within the prompt to guide the AI’s response effectively

- Part 2: Analysis & Reflexivity: You are then asked to critically assess the AI’s reply by highlighting where it is strong/correct, where it has biases, and where it lacks sufficient analysis and/or credibility and why this is the case. I am not looking to see if you ‘liked’ the answer or not, or if it was ‘good’. Similarly, I am not looking to see a summary of what the A.I. said. I want analysis. Therefore, NO summaries and NO simplistic responses along the lines of “I liked it”. Specifically:

- Your analysis must engage with the following dimensions:

a) Accuracy: Does the AI provide factually correct information? How do you verify this?

b) Bias & Framing: How does the AI’s response reflect implicit biases, and how does this affect its conclusions?

c) Omissions & Knowledge Gaps: What crucial aspects of the topic are missing or underdeveloped?

d) Comparative Utility: How does the AI’s response compare to scholarly literature on the topic?”

e) Lastly, as part of your analysis, reflect on whether the AI’s response weaknesses were due to issues with your prompt. If so, how could you refine it to elicit a better answer (do not submit another prompt; indicate in your analysis what you would have done differently in the prompting)?

- Please note in the prompt you should clarify that the answer should not exceed 2500 words.

This means you must also evaluate what the AI left behind you believe is important and most of the times this depends on how detailed your prompt is; if it’s a general prompt it will leave behind many things as it will give you a general answer. The more detailed the prompt, the more limited the scope and therefore the easier it is to evaluate what was omitted and why.

- You are free to engage with additional prompts and engage in a ‘conversation’ until you find the answer that best ‘fits’ your assessment. However, I would like to see ONLY the final prompt…not the entire conversation. If you would like to include all your discussions as an appendix you could, but the important one, and the one that will ultimately be graded, will be the one single prompt.

Goal: The goal of this academic exercise is threefold: (i) To help students learn how to use properly AI prompts, (ii) to assess the AI answers (as noted above), and (iii) to enhance the learning process on the relevant material.