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AI and the Library

Copyright and data privacy

 

Copyright law

If you upload published PDFs or lecture material to AI tools for summarisation, or even to generate reference lists, this could be a breach of copyright and the University's licence agreements with publishers. There are wider copyright issues around AI tools, for example some Large Language Models did not ask for permission from authors to use their content for training purposes and might be in breach of copyright and intellectual property rules.

 

Privacy: your data

Avoid inputting sensitive research or personal data. Your prompts, or any inputted material, may be used for training data. There may be options to “opt out” of this, but we still advise checking on the data and privacy policies of the AI tool.

 

Reflection

Consider the following questions to help you reflect on copyright and data privacy and your use of AI tools:

  • What data am I sharing with AI? Is this mine to share? Is this information under copyright? 
  • What do I think about someone else sharing my data via AI?
  • What happens to the data I share with this AI tool? How will this data be used? 
  • How do I feel about my participation with AI might be used as free labour to further develop the AI tool?
  • How does using AI impact on originality of thought?
  • Does using AI make my ideas less authentic?
  • Are the outputs generated by AI "original"?

 

References

Kelly, J. (2024) ‘An introduction to copyright law and practice in education, and the concerns arising in the context of GenerativeAI’, Jisc: Artificial intelligence, 11 March. Available at: https://nationalcentreforai.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2024/03/11/copyright-and-concerns-arising-around-generative-ai/ (Accessed: 30 June 2025).

Radanliev, P. (2025) ‘AI Ethics: Integrating Transparency, Fairness, and Privacy in AI Development’, Applied Artificial Intelligence, 39(1). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/08839514.2025.2463722.