Utah Tech University

Artificial Intelligence

AI use at Utah Tech

Artificial intelligence offers exciting opportunities to improve how we teach, learn, create, research, and work at Utah Tech University. We encourage our campus community to explore these technologies and innovate with them responsibly. At the same time, protecting University data and the privacy of our students, employees, and community remains essential. This site provides resources to help you choose and use AI tools safely, effectively, and responsibly.

University Guidelines for Responsible Use of AI Tools

Purpose and Scope

These guidelines establish expectations for the responsible use of AI technologies in academic work and university operations. They apply to all students, faculty, and staff, and are designed to uphold academic integrity, data privacy, and critical thinking as core pillars of our institution’s mission.

1. Responsible Handling of Sensitive Data

Sensitive data including Protected Health Information (PHI), Personally Identifiable Information (PII), and FERPA-protected student records must never be input into public or commercial AI tools. Users must ensure all information shared with AI platforms is non-sensitive or thoroughly anonymized. Please refer to the risk classification chart below to determine whether your data is low, medium, or high risk.

2. Author Responsibility and Review of AI Outputs

Authors are fully responsible for verifying the accuracy and originality of any AI-assisted content. All AI-generated materials must be carefully reviewed for factual errors, bias, stereotyping, inaccuracies, hallucinations, plagiarism, and copyright issues.

3. Data Risk Classification

Risk Level Utah Tech Data Examples Permitted AI Tools AI Usage Rules & Handling Guidelines
Uncontrolled (Green)
  • Brainstorming ideas & outlines
  • Public UT web copy & press releases
  • Published course descriptions & syllabi
  • General code snippets & template text
 Any AI tool, public or Utah Tech provided. No AI-specific restrictions.
  • Free to use with public or Utah Tech provided AI models.
  • Ensure output is reviewed for quality and accuracy before publication.
Internal (Yellow)
  • Internal UT documentation & memos
  • Department meeting minutes & agendas
  • Draft policy proposals & research notes
  • Internal operational workflows
  • Vendor proposals & contracts
  • Departmental budgets and spending reports
 UTAH TECH LICENSED TOOLS ONLY (Prohibited on Public/Consumer AI tools)
  • DO NOT use personal/free AI accounts (e.g., standard ChatGPT or Claude free tiers).
  • Must log in using Utah Tech SSO/enterprise credentials to ensure data protection
Restricted (Red)
  • FERPA: Student grades, transcripts, IDs, financial aid, advising information
  • HIPAA: Health/Counseling center records, employee medical files
  • PII/PCI: SSNs, credit cards, banking info, system passwords
 PROHIBITED (No LLM or GenAI Tool Allowed)
  • Do not paste, attach, or upload this data into any online AI platform.
  • If you believe you have a special use case for AI analysis or want to use a local model please reach out to IT about possible solutions

University-Provided AI Tools

Access to Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Zoom AI Companion is included for free with your Utah Tech account. Log in using your @utahtech.edu credentials to align with university guidelines, and remember that high-risk data remains restricted across all AI tools.

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot Chat

Visit Microsoft Copilot

How to log in using your UT account

Features
  • Available to faculty, staff, and eligible students when signed in with UT account—at no additional cost—via web browser and the Microsoft Edge sidebar.
  • Provides secure, ad‑free AI assistance for brainstorming, drafting, summarizing webpages, and creating images (with daily limits).
  • Prompts and responses are protected under Microsoft’s enterprise data protection, and they aren’t used to train their models.
  • Note: This offering does not include the Copilot features inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, or Teams (you’ll need an enhanced license, which comes at an additional cost. If you’re interested in these expanded features, please contact the IT department to learn more or request access.).

Examples & More

Learn about Copilot Prompts – Microsoft Support
Copilot Prompt Gallery – Microsoft (requires sign-in)
Ideas for Using AI and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat – Cornell University
Free, secure AI chat for work – Microsoft

Google Gemini

Google Gemini

Visit Google Gemini

How to log in to Gemini with UT account

Features
  • Gemini Apps: Access to the Gemini web app with enterprise-grade data protection (data is not used to train AI models).
  • Core AI Capabilities: The ability to research, brainstorm, and create content with Gemini, including features like “Gems” for building custom AI assistants and “Gemini Canvas” for a creative workspace.
  • Gemini Notebook: An AI-powered research and writing tool.
  • Deep Research: Limited access to a tool that browses and analyzes websites to create comprehensive reports.
  • Audio Overviews: The ability to convert documents into a podcast-like audio format for on-the-go learning, with a monthly usage limit.
  • Available for extra cost with Gemini Education/Education Premium (expanded usage limits, integration with Docs, Slides, and Sheets, expanded access to premium Ai models, Advanced Google Meet features, enhanced data loss prevention)

Examples & More

Using Gemini for Google Workspace in Higher Education
NotebookLM – Personalized AI Research Assistant
NotebookLM Demo – Google Cloud
Google AI Studio – Kevin Stratvert
End of Tutorials? – Kevin Stratvert

Zoom AI

Zoom AI Companion

Visit the UT Zoom portal

How to log in to Zoom with UT account

Features
  • Meeting Summary: This feature generates a high-level summary of the meeting, including key points, decisions, and next steps. The host can then review, edit, and share the summary with participants. This feature also works for in-person meetings with the Voice Recorder.
  • In-Meeting Questions: Participants can ask questions about the meeting’s content without interrupting the flow. The AI Companion can provide answers to questions like “Catch me up,” “What are the action items?”, or specific questions about what was said.
  • Smart Recording: This tool enhances cloud recordings by automatically organizing them into chapters, highlighting key takeaways, and identifying next steps. It can also provide hosts with analytics on conversation metrics, such as talk speed and talk-listen ratio.
  • Whiteboard Content Generation: The AI Companion can generate content for Zoom Whiteboards, such as shapes, diagrams, and text, to help with brainstorming and visual collaboration.

Examples & More

Getting Started with Zoom AI Companion
Examples by Role
More about the AI Companion

Additional AI Tools

ChatGPT and Claude have been reviewed by IT and OGC for general university use. Departments pay for these services, but purchases must be coordinated through IT so the correct license is acquired. Consumer-grade and personal subscriptions do not include the data protections in our agreements and must not be used with university data. Use an official Utah Tech account.

ChatGPT Business ($20/month)

https://chatgpt.com/business/business-plan

Departments that choose ChatGPT pay for it directly. ChatGPT Business costs $25 per user per month billed monthly, or $20 per user per month billed annually. Access is through the university’s ChatGPT workspace, not individual subscriptions. Signing up on your own with a utahtech.edu email does not give you the data protections in our agreement.

To get started, message Craig Southwick in the IT department directly to be added to the university’s account.

Features
  • Stronger data privacy — OpenAI does not train its models on workspace data by default, unlike a personal free or Plus account
  • Access to OpenAI’s most capable models, including advanced reasoning models for complex tasks and faster models for everyday use
  • Deep Research — lets ChatGPT investigate complex questions in depth across multiple steps, rather than a single quick answer
  • Study Mode — turns ChatGPT into a guided tutor that asks questions and provides hints instead of direct answers, tailoring explanations to the user
  • Codex — Codex is OpenAI’s built-in coding feature that assists users with writing, debugging, and analyzing code directly within ChatGPT to simplify software development and technical tasks.

Examples & More

GenAI Chatbot Prompt Library for Educators
56 Game-Changing AI Prompts for Teachers
Teaching with AI – OpenAI
Use Cases for University Educators – OpenAI

Claude Team Plan ($20/month)

https://claude.ai/settings/billing?action=subscribe

Departments that choose Claude pay for it directly. A Claude Team Standard seat costs $25 per user per month billed monthly, or $20 per user per month billed annually. Access is through the university’s Claude Team organization, not individual subscriptions. Signing up on your own with a utahtech.edu email does not give you the data protections in our agreement.

To get started, message Craig Southwick in the IT department directly to be added to the university’s account”

Features
  • More usage than the free version, so you won’t hit limits as quickly
  • Access to Claude’s most capable models
  • The ability to work with long documents — up to about 500 pages in a single conversation
  • Stronger data privacy — under the university’s plan, your conversations are not used to train Claude’s models, unlike a personal free account
  • Projects, a way to keep ongoing work (like a class or department initiative) organized in one place
  • Cowork (currently in beta), which lets you hand off multi-step tasks to Claude and have it work on them for you
  • Claude Code, for staff who write code and want help directly in their workflow

Examples & More

Anthropic’s Prompt Engineering Walkthrough
Prompt Library for Claude Code
Claude for Higher Education
Anthropic Education Report: How educators use Claude – Aug. 2025

AI Meeting Assistants & Note-Taking

Zoom AI and Microsoft 365 Copilot are the only authorized AI meeting assistants and note-taking tools at Utah Tech. Zoom’s AI features are included with every Utah Tech Zoom account at no extra cost, and Zoom is the recommended solution. Copilot’s meeting features require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, which is an additional cost paid by the department.

  • Zoom AI Companion: Zoom’s built-in AI assistant automatically generates meeting summaries, transcripts, and key action items from your Zoom meetings. It can also join external calls on Microsoft Teams or Google Meet as a participant to provide the same summaries. You can enable or disable this feature at any time in your Zoom account settings.
  • Zoom Notes: Designed for team collaboration, Zoom Notes provides a built-in workspace for real time co-authoring and shared documentation directly within Zoom sessions. Participants can draft agendas, capture live notes, and edit content together before, during, or after a meeting. All notes remain securely stored within your Zoom workspace for easy sharing and ongoing team review.
  • My Notes: Delivers personal, automated note-taking that extends beyond standard Zoom calls. My Notes offers personal meeting transcription and AI summaries across any video conferencing platform. As long as the Zoom desktop application or mobile app is open on your device, it captures private meeting recaps without needing an external bot on the participant list.
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot (Paid Add-On): Integrated directly into Microsoft Teams, Copilot offers automated meeting transcription, intelligent recaps, and real-time Q&A during calls. It synthesizes meeting discussions, tracks action items, and drafts follow-up emails seamlessly within your Microsoft workspace. Note that accessing these meeting features requires an upgraded, paid M365 Copilot license.

These tools serve as our official, secure replacement for third-party services such as Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai and Read.ai. We recognize many are currently using these tools, but without formal agreements in place, they pose a risk to institutional privacy and compliance. Individuals are encouraged to familiarize themselves with these approved note-taking tools as unauthorized meeting assistants will eventually be blocked.

Specialty AI Tools

While not comprehensive, the following categories showcase popular AI tools designed for specific, high-impact tasks.

Click to View List of Specialty AI Tools

Text-to-Image Tools

  • DALL·E 3 (OpenAI) – Known for producing high-quality, coherent images from complex prompts and integrating well with ChatGPT.
  • Stable Diffusion (Stability AI) – An open-source model with huge customization potential, widely adopted by developers and hobbyists.
  • Adobe Firefly – Integrated into Adobe Creative Cloud apps; optimized for commercial-safe images.

Text-to-Video Tools

Text-to-Speech Tools

  • ElevenLabs – Best-in-class realism, expressive voice tags, robust cloning
  • Lovo.ai – Emotional delivery, multilingual support, accessible tiers
  • Voice.ai / Murf – Studio-grade quality, rich voice libraries, developer-friendly

Coding/App Development

  • GitHub Copilot – widely adopted and excels at real-time code assistance across many environments
  • Cursor (AI-powered IDE) – offers a fully AI-enhanced IDE experience with strong privacy and automation features
  • Claude Opus (Anthropic) – delivers exceptional coding reasoning and performance, especially on difficult, long-duration challenges

Teaching & Learning Tools

Glossary of AI Terms

Click to View Glossary of AI Terms
  • Agentic (AI): A type of artificial intelligence that can set goals, make decisions, and take actions on its own to get things done, without needing constant human control.
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI): Computer systems performing tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as understanding language, recognizing patterns, or making decisions.
  • Bias: Systematic, unfair patterns in AI outputs that arise from flawed or unrepresentative training data.
  • Chat: Interactive, text-based conversations with AI systems to get answers, ideas, or help with tasks.
  • Generative AI: AI systems that create new content—such as text, images, music, or code—by learning from existing data.
  • Hallucination: When AI generates outputs that sound plausible but are factually incorrect or invented.
  • Large Language Model (LLM): An advanced type of neural network trained on vast amounts of text data to understand and generate human language (e.g., ChatGPT).
  • Machine Learning (ML): A branch of AI that enables computers to learn from data and improve over time without explicit programming.
  • Model: The trained AI system or algorithm that produces outputs (answers, predictions, content) from inputs.
  • Neural Network: A computational model inspired by the human brain’s structure, used to recognize complex patterns in data.
  • Open-source vs. Proprietary Models: Open-source models are freely available to use and modify, while proprietary models are owned and licensed by companies.
  • Prompt: The user’s input or instruction that guides the AI’s response.
  • Prompt Engineering: Crafting clear, effective prompts to get better results from AI tools. Learn more in this guide.
  • Training Data: The information used to teach AI models how to perform specific tasks by showing them patterns and examples.
  • Vibe Coding: an intuitive, exploratory approach to programming that emphasizes creativity and rapid prototyping over structured planning.

AI Tips and Tricks

Understand Your Use Case First

Clearly understanding your use case helps you avoid wasted time and get more effective, targeted results from AI.

  • Define your goal clearly. Are you writing, summarizing, brainstorming, coding, or researching?
  • Choose the right AI tool. Some specialize in text, others in images, audio, or code.

Write Clear and Specific Prompts
  • Avoid vague instructions. Use specific questions or scenarios.
  • Break complex tasks into steps. Start with an outline if needed.
  • Prompt Recipe: Task + Context + Tone

Experiment with Prompt Variations
  • Test different phrasings or orders of information.
  • Use role-based prompts like “Act as a…”
  • Iterate. Ask for revisions or expansions.

Restart When the AI Gets Stuck
  • Start a new session to avoid repetition or bias from previous prompts.
  • Fresh chats often yield better results.

Use Structured Input When Possible
  • Use bullet points or numbered lists to guide the AI.
  • Tables help clarify structure for data-related outputs.

Ask for Different Formats

Examples of useful formats:

  • Summaries
  • Lists
  • FAQs
  • Stories
  • Scripts
  • Emails
  • Code snippets
  • Dialogue

Example: “Summarize this in 5 bullet points” or “Write this as an email.”

Leverage AI for Idea Generation
  • Brainstorm blog topics, titles, or questions.
  • Ask for alternate angles or endings to content.
  • Generate product, business, or character names.

Use AI for Research and Summarization
  • Summarize long articles, documents, or web pages.
  • Extract key points for quick reference.
  • Generate citations (and always verify them).

Note: AI can hallucinate. Always verify critical facts.

Give Feedback in the Conversation
  • Ask for changes in tone, formality, or structure.
  • Request translations or simplifications.
  • Use the back-and-forth as a collaborative edit session.

Keep Privacy in Mind
  • Avoid entering personal, sensitive, or confidential data – use only approved AI tools that maintain privacy and data security
  • Review your tool’s data policies before sharing information.

Learn the Limits of AI
  • AI can be inaccurate or biased.
  • It lacks reasoning and real-world awareness.
  • It should assist, not replace, human judgment.

Advanced Prompting Techniques
  • Few-shot prompting: Give examples to guide output.
  • Chain-of-thought: Ask AI to explain its reasoning step-by-step.
  • System instructions: Define the AI’s role or behavior for the session.

For Coders
  • Ask for code explanations, refactors, or fixes.
  • Use AI to generate or review code snippets.
  • Test and verify AI-generated code before use.

For Teachers and Students
  • Create lesson plans, quizzes, or summaries.
  • Translate, adapt, or clarify content.
  • Brainstorm essay ideas or improve drafts.

Keep Practicing and Learning
  • Keep a log of your best prompts and outcomes.
  • Learn from others and share your own techniques.
  • Stay current with tool updates and capabilities.

UT Resources

Explore Utah Tech’s collection of guidelines, training, and resources for using AI tools in teaching and learning: