D773 Technology and Ethics: Emerging Trends and Society NOTES AI Risks, Best Practices, and Ethical Considerations 2026-2027 Western Governors University
AI Risks and Associated Best Practices Purpose of AI in This Course This course offers the opportunity to use AI to encourage students to engage with new technologies that may enhance workflows, streamline tasks, and provide innovative solutions to common challenges. AI tools should only be used for the specified purposes in the course. Risks and Best Practices AI tools can boost productivity and offer creative solutions, but they also bring certain risks. This document covers potential issues related to privacy, inaccuracies, biases, and ethics and offers best practices to help mitigate these risks. Privacy Some AI tools may require access to your personal data before you are able to use them, or you may have access to the personal information of others embedded in objects you wish to share with AI. To reduce privacy-related risks, consider the tips below: • Avoid sharing sensitive or personally identifiable information about yourself and others. • Be cautious about the type of information you place into AI tools. If there is a data breach or tool misuse, your information may be put at risk. • Review the privacy policies of any AI tool before using it to ensure you are comfortable with any shared data. Inaccurate and Biased Outputs AI tools can produce incorrect or biased outputs and sharing untrue or offensive information can harm your reputation. To avoid risks related to outputs that are inaccurate or biased, practice the following: • Always double-check the outputs from AI tools for accuracy, fairness, and relevance. • Provide AI tools with additional context in prompts that may be needed to draft relevant responses adequately. Ethics The use of AI comes with some ethical considerations, especially when creating or using content created by someone else. When sharing content generated by AI, it is