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AI Guidelines for Campus Communicators

UC San Diego communicators are encouraged to use and incorporate generative artificial intelligence (generative AI)-powered tools into their communications practice with an ethical, human-centered approach. AI is useful in many contexts — to brainstorm, capture notes, test ideas and refine text, etc. — but the emerging technology also has pitfalls and requires a careful, thoughtful approach. AI tools are known to have bias and to hallucinate (make up facts), and there are ethical concerns about the source data many tools use.

This guidance is meant to help campus communicators understand the benefits and risks of using AI in their work, access available tools, and provide resources for further explanation.

What is generative AI?

Generative AI encompasses a range of technologies designed to create new content by leveraging extensive training on diverse datasets, ranging from text and music to images. Notable among these tools is ChatGPT, a chatbot equipped to engage users through natural language interactions. “Chat” signifies the user-friendly interface, while “GPT” (generative pretrained transformer) indicates the underlying machine-learning architecture responsible for content generation.

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, DALL·E and Gemini excel at generating text, music, images and even computer code. These models undergo rigorous training on comprehensive datasets, which include an assortment of text from books, websites and various other sources. By decoding complex patterns and linguistic nuances, these tools can produce content that is not only contextually appropriate but also grammatically accurate and stylistically coherent.

Learn more about AI and general campus guidance on the Blink AI webpage.

Guiding principles when using AI in campus communications

Human-centered use

The mission of University Communications is to protect and promote the UC San Diego brand by highlighting the transformative achievements of our people. Therefore, our approach to integrating AI is human-centered, and our communicators are encouraged to use AI to amplify and augment — rather than displace — human work. AI is an incredible tool, but it cannot replace or replicate the creativity, inclusivity and attention to detail that our communications community is so skilled at practicing. We encourage the use of AI as one of many tools in a communicator’s tool kit.

Transparency

Communicators should be fully transparent with their teams and editors when AI has been used to generate material so that there is adequate review for hallucinations, copyright issues or bias. Transparency is also important in building and maintaining trust with colleagues, reviewers, partners and clients.

Ethical use

We commit to educating ourselves about the different types of AI, as well as the potential pitfalls with specific tools, and using AI programs in the same ethical manner with which we develop all University Communications material. In generative AI, datasets used to train many models may include copyrighted, incomplete or biased data, and we are sensitive to these issues as we integrate AI into our workflow, giving careful consideration to how AI-generated material may impact people with disabilities and members of our community who are marginalized.

Using generative AI today

Below is some guidance for communications teams that use AI, as well as some viable use cases.

Do use AI for: Don’t use AI for:

Generating a list of 20 potential titles for a research seminar

Coming up with creative themes for a department retreat based on a few key words

Developing a novel approach to a project from scratch

Drafting web or news release copy based on a bulleted list of facts you provide

Creating public-facing content when timeliness and accurate information is critical and information is evolving

Condensing, summarizing or converting text and data to new formats

Content analysis requiring a high level of accuracy

Capturing meeting notes and summarizing takeaways and action items

Working with sensitive or confidential  data,  communications or meeting contents

Translating straightforward copy to get a rough draft ready for a human editor

Translating nuanced works where a misinterpreted word or phrase could have significant negative impact

Preliminary editing for style, grammar, conciseness

Final proofreading and fact-checking

Ensuring inclusivity and avoiding bias

Drafting job postings or interview questions based on a list of competencies you provide

Ranking resumes

Making a final hiring decision

Writing a script to automate file organization

Generating boilerplate HTML/CSS for a webpage

Explaining what a specific snippet of confusing code does

Architecting a complex, secure software system from scratch

Debugging a large codebase

Creating optimized, easily-maintained code

Generating SEO-friendly meta descriptions

Suggesting header tags (H1, H2) to improve structure

Rewriting headlines to include specific key words while maintaining readability

Auditing technical backend performance (like page load speed or server response times)

Predicting exactly how a search engine algorithm will rank a page

General communications guidance

In its current form, generative AI is most useful for refining and formatting text, code generation, preliminary editing, image manipulation and visual ideation. All output from generative AI requires close and expert review and thoughtful integration into a final product. In short, AI can give you a productive boost, but it can’t do your work for you.

Avoid using generative AI for:

  • Anything that involves protected, sensitive information
  • Crisis communications
  • Communications on sensitive, reputational issues
  • Bylined work (should not be primarily generated by AI)
  • Creating images that include real human subjects or campus locations (due to brand, quality and intellectual property issues)
  • Translation (tools are not currently accurate enough to provide full, nuanced translations)
  • Captions that will not be proofread (tools often do not provide accurate captions and are not compliant with ADA requirements)

Ensure quality and safety when using AI:

  • Review and edit any AI-generated materials.
  • Monitor for bias and hallucinations.
  • Educate yourself about the tools you use and monitor for intellectual property issues.
  • Be transparent with team members when using AI.
  • Consider attribution, especially with AI-generated images.

Common tools and use cases

It is important to note that UC San Diego does not have licensing agreements with many of these tools, and communicators should not input confidential data, early research material or other sensitive information into these tools. Communicators who would like to purchase an AI tool, service or subscription with university funds can email procurement lead Andrew Bunker to obtain a license and ensure the product meets university guidelines.

  • TritonGPT is a campus-hosted large language model available to campus faculty, staff and students at no cost. It also offers access to a variety of current large language models, including Gemini and ChatGPT. Use Triton GPT to:
    • Find alternative verbiage, brainstorm, research or assist with preliminary proofreading.
    • Summarize and analyze meeting notes and transcripts.
    • Make writing more concise, especially for limited space or word count.
    • Draft or clean up web code.
  • Adobe Creative Cloud offers multiple tools that can help with generating, cropping, retouching and adding and removing elements from still and motion images.
  • Generative AI image tools like DALL·E and Midjourney can be useful for visual ideation and inspiration.
    • Due to uncertainties around copyright, these image tools should not be used to create final published work.
  • Adobe Firefly, Getty Images AI and Canva offer image generation using models trained on properly licensed data. Images produced using those services are acceptable for publishing. 
  • ChatGPT/Gemini/LaMDA
    • Anyone can use these text-processing tools to:
      • Find alternative verbiage, brainstorm, research or assist with preliminary proofreading.
      • Summarize and analyze meeting notes and transcripts.
      • Make writing more concise, especially for limited space or word count.
      • Draft or clean up web code.
  • Semrush is another writing assistant tool.
  • Sprout Social is useful for message tone, content scheduling, listening and hashtag management.
  • Microsoft and Google apps employ predictive autofill features.

Using AI‑generated images and video

AI-generated images can be especially helpful for brainstorming, sketching or exploring ideas. However, care must be taken if they’re intended to be published. 

What to do

  • For published work, only use images created by tools that were trained on licensed data. As of early 2026, this includes Adobe Firefly, Getty Images AI and Canva.
  • Attribute AI-generated images appropriately. For example, Adobe’s terms require the credit that is specified in each file’s IPTC credit line metadata for editorial purposes.
    • Requirements for attribution vary by vendor. 
    • The person who generates or uses an image from AI is responsible for providing the appropriate credit line.
  • Make sure AI‑generated material is appropriate for the message, free of bias and carefully reviewed by a human before it goes live. If the image relates to a research or academic topic, it should be reviewed by a subject matter expert. 
  • If you need images of UC San Diego people or places, use photography from the Media Gallery or coordinate with University Communications. Illustrations made by humans are acceptable as well, as long as care is taken in representing our campus.

What NOT to do

  • Don’t create or use AI‑generated likenesses of specific individuals. That means don’t use fabricated portrayals of faculty, staff, students or public figures. Doing so could harm our reputation with the individuals or viewers.
  • Don’t use AI re-creations of actual UC San Diego campus locations or recognizable landmarks. Even subtle inaccuracies can cause credibility problems.

Future possibilities

Today, the most common AI tools are processors for stand-alone text and images. In the future, AI will be more seamlessly integrated into the tools we use every day. Learn more about ITS’ efforts in this area.

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