Standard Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

This policy applies to authors, reviewers, editors, teachers, researchers, practitioners and students. In this policy, AI means computer aided generation of text, images, data or results in ways that mimic human production. AI is a generator of possible meanings, which may be correct or incorrect, rather than a definitive source or reference. It generates responses based on patterns in the data it has been trained on, but it lacks the ability to verify facts or context like a human would. Furthermore, the data it is trained on often contains very little, and at times no, African content at all. The trainers are also rarely African.

Principles

• AI is not a source or reference, but a generator of possible meanings, which can be incorrect or correct.
• AI must be used ethically to avoid plagiarism and artificialism.
• AI must not replace human production and creativity.
• When used, it must be disclosed, otherwise manuscript will be rejected outright or withdrawn.
• False citing is a breach of our academic integrity policy.
• AI can’t replace sources, and it can’t be referenced as a source.

How to use AI?

Ethically

If authors choose to use AI, we ask that they use it in ethical ways, and at all times avoid copying and pasting from AI applications. You can use AI to help you generate ideas and images but be mindful that AI can provide ideas that are incorrect, colonising or not grounded in Africa’s knowledge and literature. AI can easily not include African literature, knowledge, values and theories.

Disclosing

When you use AI, for whatever reason, you need to provide an acknowledgement or disclosure statement describing how you used it, why and how you made sure content produced valued African sources. In the statement, indicate the questions you asked AI, and any additional prompts to refine results. Indicate the content that you used from AI and provide reasons for using AI.

Acceptable reasons to use AI

Acceptable reasons include:

• Improve English language since English is not my first language.
• Generate a draft of points (not draft of a manuscript).
• Generate relevant unbiased images where a person is unable to create that image through drawing, moulding, painting or other means.
• Translation.
• Text data analysis or text mining as in content analysis (not thematic analysis).