📖 IT Bible

Checklist for using AI responsibly

Principles of responsible AI use

Applying the following four principles helps you use AI tools both responsibly and effectively.

1. Be clear and specific in your prompts

Vague or ambiguous prompts can lead to generic outputs. The more specific you are in your instructions, the more you guide the AI tool away from unhelpful assumptions and toward the nuanced output you actually want. Being specific is a key part of using AI responsibly.

2. Protect sensitive information

This is a crucial responsibility for every AI user. Public AI tools are not the place for personal, confidential, or sensitive data. Before entering any prompt, it’s a good idea to pause and ask yourself: Am I including data in my prompt that someone else might expect me to keep private?

Here are a few practical ways to protect sensitive information when prompting:

  • Use placeholders by referring to people, projects, or places with generic names.

  • Frame prompts around the task you need done, not the people involved.

  • Input only relevant context needed to complete the task, rather than entire documents.

Pro tip: Check out how to adjust your privacy settings and manage your conversation history in Gemini.

3. Provide high-quality information

The quality of an AI tool’s output can reflect the quality of the references you provide. If you give the tool examples or data that are biased, outdated, or contain errors, the tool is likely to reproduce those same flaws in its response.

You should always try to provide inputs that are as accurate and unbiased as possible. Before using a piece of text or data as an example, ask yourself: Does this information represent a fair and balanced perspective? Is it from a source I trust?

By providing fair and factual inputs, you guide the tool toward creating a more responsible and accurate output.

4. Always verify the output

No matter how good your prompt is, the final responsibility for the output is yours. You are the essential human-in-the-loop who must be the final judge of accuracy, tone, and appropriateness.

Here is a simple workflow to apply this principle:

  • Review the output to ensure it meets your goals.

  • Fact-check any claims or data by cross-referencing the information.

  • Revise the content yourself by treating the AI-generated text as a first draft.

Pro tip: Some AI tools can help you fact-check their own responses. You can learn more about how to use the double-check feature in Gemini to evaluate its responses.