Estimated Time: 20 minutes
What you’ll learn
By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to:
- Understand the ethical implications of AI collaboration
- Understand the importance of transparency in AI work
- Recognize your responsibility in AI interactions and outputs
Video: A Closer Look at Diligence
(7 minutes)
This video explores Diligence, the AI Fluency competency that focuses on responsible and ethical AI collaborations. We explain that while the other competencies primarily address effectiveness and efficiency, Diligence addresses ethical and safety aspects that are equally crucial. We introduce three components:
- Creation Diligence: Being thoughtful about which AI systems you choose and how you work with them
- Transparency Diligence: Being open about AI's role in your work
- Deployment Diligence: Taking ownership for AI-assisted outputs you share with others
We emphasize that different contexts may have different expectations, but we each have a responsibility to understand and meet these expectations.
Key takeaways
- Diligence is about taking responsibility for our AI collaborations
- Creation Diligence involves being thoughtful about which AI systems we use and how we engage with them
- Transparency Diligence means being honest about AI's role in our work with everyone who needs to know
- Deployment Diligence requires taking responsibility for verifying and vouching for the outputs we use or share
- Different contexts (personal, academic, professional) may have different expectations for disclosure and verification
- Thoughtful Diligence helps ensure our AI collaborations are not only effective and efficient, but also ethical and safe
Exercises
Exercise: Creating a Diligence Statement
Estimated time: 14 minutes
In this exercise, you'll draft a diligence statement for the project you’ve been working on. Here is the diligence statement for this course itself.
Step 1: Understand Diligence Statements
Estimated time: 3 minutes
A diligence statement is a transparent acknowledgment of AI's role in your work, along with your commitment to responsibility for the final output. Here's an example:
"In creating this [document/project/content], I collaborated with [AI assistant name] to assist with [specific tasks: drafting, research, editing, etc.]. I affirm that all AI-generated and co-created content underwent thorough review and evaluation. The final output accurately reflects my understanding, expertise, and intended meaning. While AI assistance was instrumental in the process, I maintain full responsibility for the content, its accuracy, and its presentation. This disclosure is made in the spirit of transparency and to acknowledge the role of AI in the creation process."
Step 2: Reflect on Your AI Collaboration
Estimated time: 5 minutes
Think about your work on the course project and consider:
- Creation Diligence:
- Which AI systems did you choose to work with and why?
- What data or information did you share with the AI?
- Were there any privacy, security, or ethical considerations in your choices?
- Transparency Diligence:
- Who is the audience for your project output?
- What expectations might they have regarding AI disclosure?
- How specifically did AI contribute to different aspects of your work?
- Deployment Diligence:
- What steps did you take to verify the accuracy and appropriateness of AI contributions?
- How did you ensure the final output meets your standards and requirements?
- What responsibility are you taking for the final product?
Step 3: Draft Your Diligence Statement
Estimated time: 6 minutes
Open a conversation with Claude and:
- Share your reflections from Step 2, as well as optionally your past conversations that you’ve had with Claude about this project
- Collaborate with Claude to draft a diligence statement specific to your project
- Ensure your statement addresses:
- Which AI systems you used
- How the AI contributed to your project
- The review process you employed
- Your assertion of responsibility for the final output
- Any context-specific considerations (academic, professional, etc.)
Step 4: Add Your Statement to Your Project
When you finish your project, add your diligence statement in an appropriate location (e.g., footer, appendix, or metadata).
Reflection
Before moving on, take a moment to consider:
- Which aspect of Diligence (Creation, Transparency, or Deployment) do you find most challenging, and why?
- How might your approach to Diligence vary depending on the context (personal, academic, professional)?
- How does acknowledging AI's role in your work affect how others might perceive it?
- What ethical considerations arose during your project that you hadn't anticipated?
- What personal guidelines might you develop for responsible AI collaboration going forward?
Lesson resources
Diligence summary slide (8.5x11)
A concise summary of the Diligence competency that you can print as a quick reference.
Diligence summary slide (16x9)
A concise summary of the Diligence competency that you can use in presentations.
What’s next
In the final lesson of this course, we'll reflect on what we've learned about AI Fluency and how these competencies work together. We'll revisit the framework as a whole and discuss how you can continue developing these skills as AI capabilities evolve. The conclusion will help you synthesize the knowledge and practices you've gained and apply them to future AI collaborations.
Feedback on this course
As you progress through the course, we'd love to hear from you about how you are using concepts from the course in your life, work, or classes and any feedback you may have. Share your feedback here.
Acknowledgments and license
Copyright 2025 Rick Dakan, Joseph Feller, and Anthropic. Released under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
This course is based on The AI Fluency Framework by Dakan and Feller.
Supported in part by the Higher Education Authority, Ireland, through the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning.