Policy Statement

Prince Sultan University (PSU) is committed to fostering innovation and excellence in education and research through the ethical and responsible use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen-AI) tools such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, and DALL·E. All members of the PSU community—including students, faculty, administrative staff, and researchers—are encouraged to use Gen-AI tools to enhance learning, teaching, and innovation, provided that such use:

• Is explicitly disclosed and acknowledged;
• Is subject to critical human review and validation;
• Fully complies with PSU’s standards for academic integrity, ethical conduct, and legal requirements.

Unauthorized or unethical use of Gen-AI tools may constitute academic misconduct and will be subject to appropriate disciplinary actions in accordance to PSU’s regulations.

Background and Justification

The emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen-AI) marks a transformative milestone in digital innovation, offering capabilities such as producing human-like text, realistic imagery, and advanced simulations. Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, DALL·E, and others are reshaping how we teach, learn, and conduct research—enabling personalized education, accelerating academic productivity, and enhancing creative expression.

Prince Sultan University (PSU) embraces the positive potential of Gen-AI to enrich the academic experience. However, the use of these tools must be approached with thoughtful consideration and ethical responsibility. Unchecked or inappropriate use of AI-generated content can lead to serious consequences, including:

• Academic dishonesty and misrepresentation of authorship
• Erosion of critical thinking and independent learning
• Violation of intellectual property and privacy laws
• Introduction of algorithmic bias and spread of misinformation

PSU affirms its commitment to ensuring that AI technologies are used in ways that uphold the university’s academic integrity, ethical standards, and educational values. This policy applies to all PSU community members—students, faculty, researchers, and administrative staff—and governs the use of Gen-AI tools in academic and research contexts.

PSU’s Gen-AI Use Principles

To ensure responsible and transparent AI integration, Gen-AI tools may only be used when:

• Explicit Disclosure: Users must clearly acknowledge and document the use of AI tools in all academic or research outputs.
• Human Oversight: AI-generated content must be reviewed, interpreted, and validated by human users to ensure accuracy, quality, and context relevance.
• Ethical and Legal Compliance: Use must align with PSU’s codes of conduct, academic integrity standards, and applicable data protection and copyright laws.

Policy Objectives

• Protect Academic Integrity: Preserve the authenticity, originality, and credibility of academic work.
• Promote Ethical Innovation: Encourage AI use that enhances—rather than replaces—human insight and creativity.
• Support Development: Build AI literacy and responsible use skills among faculty, staff, and students.
• Ensure Legal and Institutional Alignment: Comply with national and international academic and data governance standards.
• Preserve PSU’s Educational Values and Reputation: Sustain the university’s leadership in academic excellence and responsible technology adoption.

PSU is committed to being a regional leader in AI-integrated education. By adopting this policy, PSU positions itself at the forefront of responsible AI governance in the region, ensuring that technological advancements are integrated thoughtfully and transparently into the fabric of academic life.

Any violation of this policy may result in disciplinary action in accordance with PSU’s academic and administrative regulations.

Scope and Purpose

Purpose: This policy is based on clear and ethical PSU AI framework that supports the responsible use of Generative AI (Gen-AI) at Prince Sultan University. It aims to uphold academic integrity, protect intellectual property, and guide students, faculty, researchers, and staff in the appropriate use of Gen-AI tools across teaching, learning, research, and administrative activities. The policy aligns with national and international standards and reflects PSU’s commitment to academic excellence, honesty, and responsible innovation.

Scope: This policy applies to all members of the Prince Sultan University (PSU) community—including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, teaching assistants, researchers, and administrative staff—who are involved in creating, submitting, evaluating, or supporting academic or administrative content. It governs the use of generative AI in all academic and research activities, including theses, research papers, proposals, coursework, exams, instructional materials, and creative content produced within or on behalf of PSU.

Principles of the Policy

Prince Sultan University recognizes the potential of Generative AI (Gen-AI) technologies—such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and DALL·E—to enhance teaching, learning, research, and administrative work. However, these tools must be used ethically, transparently, and responsibly to uphold academic integrity and preserve trust in educational outcomes.

To support the ethical use of Gen-AI, PSU will:

• Offer regular training sessions and workshops for students, faculty, researchers, and staff covering: How Gen-AI tools work; Ethical, legal, and academic implications; Proper citation and acknowledgment of AI-generated content; Case studies demonstrating acceptable and unacceptable uses.
• Provide equal access to approved Gen-AI tools, removing financial or technical barriers to ensure fairness.
• Conduct periodic reviews of approved Gen-AI tools to evaluate their ethical alignment, accuracy, and potential biases.

Guiding Principles for AI Use (for more detail refer to PSU AI framework)

• Academic Integrity: Gen-AI must not replace authentic learning or human intellectual effort. It may support—but not substitute—core academic and cognitive skills.
• Equitable Access: All PSU stakeholders should have access to university-approved Gen-AI tools regardless of background or resources.
• Transparency: Any use of Gen-AI must be clearly disclosed, and the role of AI in content generation or decision-making must be explained.
• Accountability: Users are responsible for reviewing, validating, and ethically applying AI-generated content. Misuse can lead to academic or disciplinary consequences.
• Privacy and Intellectual Property: Gen-AI use must comply with data protection laws and respect ownership of all academic and creative outputs.

Acceptable Uses

• Academic Research: For literature reviews, summarization, hypothesis exploration, code generation (with citation), or visualizations.
• Teaching and Learning: To enrich course materials, design assessments, enhance accessibility (e.g., text-to-speech, translations), and create interactive simulations.
• Writing Assistance: For grammar checking, clarity improvements, or restructuring—not for full content creation or argument development.
• Creative Projects: In digital design, brainstorming, or prototyping, as long as human creativity and authorship are preserved and acknowledged.

Unacceptable Uses

• Submitting Gen-AI-generated content as entirely original human work.
• Using Gen-AI to fabricate research data or results.
• Completing assessments, theses, or assignments entirely through Gen-AI without disclosure.
• Creating misleading, plagiarized, or harmful content using Gen-AI.
• Violating data privacy, intellectual property rights, or academic standards.

Levels of Permissible Gen-AI Use

• Prohibited: For basic skills development and foundational assessments where independent thought is essential, Gen-AI is not allowed.
• Permitted with Attribution: In contexts where Gen-AI supports higher-order thinking (e.g., idea generation, drafting), usage is allowed with full attribution and human validation.
• Encouraged: In advanced research or creative projects, Gen-AI use is encouraged when it enhances originality, innovation, or complex analysis—provided its role is transparently documented.

Faculty must clearly state Gen-AI usage policies in course syllabi and evaluate students to prevent over-reliance on AI at the expense of essential learning outcomes.

Definitions

AI-generated content: Any text, image, or media created using AI-based tools without direct human authorship, including platforms such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Mi journey and similar large language models (LLMs).

Academic Work: Assignments, essays, presentations, videos, research projects, research articles, and any material submitted for credit or evaluation.

Academic Integrity: The commitment to and demonstration of honest and moral behavior in academic work, including proper attribution and originality.

Permissible AI Use: The integration of Gen-AI tools in academic processes under clear guidelines and acknowledgment.

Non-permissible AI Use: The use of Gen-AI tools in a manner that violates academic honesty, produces deceptive content, or misrepresents authorship.

Responsibilities and Implementation Strategies

• Faculty Members: Ensure compliance with the policy in course content, student submissions, and research projects. Approve GenAI use where appropriate.
• Students: Use Gen-AI tools transparently and only within approved limits. Acknowledge usage in all academic work.
• Researchers: Ensure responsible use in data handling, code generation, and result interpretation.
• Deans/Chairs: Oversee policy dissemination, training, and enforcement within their respective colleges/departments.
• IT and Academic Affairs Units: Provide secure and regulated access to Gen-AI tools and monitor compliance.

AI Acknowledgment Requirement

Any individual using Gen-AI in academic work must include an acknowledgment specifying:

• The name of the Gen-AI tool.
• The prompt or query used.
• The purpose and section where Gen-AI were used.
• A human review of statements.

Example Acknowledgment (English): I acknowledge the use of [ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com)] to assist in writing the methodology section of this paper. Prompts were submitted on [Date], and the generated content was edited and reviewed before inclusion.

Example Acknowledgment (Arabic): أقر باستخدام تطبيق ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com) للمساعدة في كتابة قسم المنهجية في هذا البحث. تم إدخال الأوامر بتاريخ [التاريخ]، وتمت مراجعة وتحرير المحتوى قبل إدراجه.

Acceptable Content Percentage

Procedures for Handling Policy Violation

All stakeholders must comply with:

• National and international data protection laws (e.g., GDPR).
• Intellectual property rights and copyright regulations.
• University-wide ethical research and academic integrity policies.

Regular audits, AI detection tools, and faculty oversight will be used to monitor compliance. Violations may result in academic sanctions or disciplinary actions. Any violation of this policy may lead to disciplinary action according to PSU's academic misconduct regulations.

Privacy and Data Protection

GAI tools must not generate, store, or process data protected by privacy regulations unless PSU-approved tools that comply with privacy standards are used. Sensitive data, such as student records and unpublished research, should not be inputted into GAI systems. You cannot post PSU related data on AI tools for analysis, writing or storage. You cannot use AI generated data to present facts and figures for any official or graded submission.

Even with approved tools, personal data should only be used with explicit consent, and all data handling should comply with international privacy standards like GDPR.

Disallowed Applications

GAI tools infringing on privacy, intellectual property, or PSU’s ethical standards are prohibited. Faculty and students should avoid unreliable GAI systems prone to inaccuracy or bias. TLC maintains the list of tools that must be used only, for any queries you can contact TLC.

Faculty and students should be cautious of inherent biases in AI tools and actively work to prevent the spread of misinformation.

The use of AI for profiling students or faculty in ways that could lead to discrimination or privacy invasion is strictly prohibited

Enforcement

Violations of this policy by students or faculty will be addressed according to PSU’s academic and professional conduct procedures. Repeated or serious violations may result in disciplinary actions, in alignment with PSU’s commitment to maintaining academic integrity.

TLC will invite regular feedback from the university community on the policy’s effectiveness and make adjustments as needed.

PSU commits to disclosing how AI is used administratively, ensuring transparency and fairness in non-academic applications.

References

• Stanford University Policy Guidance on Generative AI.
• Prince Sultan University Academic Integrity Policy
• Prince Sultan University Student Code of Conduct
• Prince Sultan University AI framework
• IEEE AI Ethical policies
• UNESCO guidelines
• Harvard University ( https://huit.harvard.edu/ai/guidelines)
• Columbia University(https://provost.columbia.edu/content/office-senior-vice-provost/ai-policy)
• University of Chicago
• Yale University
• University of Toronto
• University of Leicester
• University of Liverpool
• King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
• King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM)
• University of Tokyo
• Peking University
• National University of Singapore
• Tsinghua University
• Nanyang Technological University
• Australian National University (ANU)

Related Policies and Documents

• PSU Academic Integrity Policy
• PSU Student Code of Conduct
• Faculty Code of Conduct