AI for Aalto students
AI can be used to support learning. It should not replace learning. Use it as one tool among many others. A collection of AI tips, tools and advice for Aalto students
Use AI to support your learning. Choose suitable tools (e.g. Aalto AI Assistant) and check course-specific guidelines.
AI in your studies – quick guide
How to use it
- Practice: ask for exercises, multiple-choice questions and plain-language explanations.
- Thinking: generate ideas and request counterarguments.
- Organisation: create timelines, to-do lists and search strategies.
- Polishing: language editing, summarising and explaining terms.
Remember your responsibility
- Your teacher may limit AI use; follow course instructions.
- Do not submit AI text as your own. Verify content with other sources.
- Language models are not permitted in the maturity test.
- Using AI against the rules may be treated as misconduct.
Copyright and referencing
- Direct use without proper referencing can be plagiarism.
- Record AI use as required by your course and ensure you have the right to use the material.
Data protection
- Do not share confidential data or personal information.
- Anonymise materials, use approved tools (Aalto AI Assistant, Microsoft 365) and check data protection policies.
- Teachers may process student work only in Aalto-approved systems.
Environment
- AI consumes energy. Narrow your prompts, ask for summaries before long outputs, and prefer lighter/older language models when that's sufficient.
Need clarification?
- Ask your course teacher how AI may be used on the course.
Aalto AI Assistant, for students
Now: A secure ChatGPT clone that protects your data. Used by thousands of personnel members and students. The Aalto AI Assistant is protected by multi‑factor authentication (MFA).
Soon: A tool to interact with Aalto data and student services, including the Student Guide, MyCourses, and teacher-assigned tasks
Tips for Aalto AI Assistant
Why to use Aalto AI Assistant
The main reasons are safety and privacy. Both user agreements and digital firewalls protect your data when using the Aalto AI Assistant, compared with services like ChatGPT. The Aalto AI Assistant does not use your data to train language models.
In addition, we can incorporate more of our own data into the assistant. We started with content from Aalto.fi and are moving on to academic sources such as MyCourses.
| Feature | ChatGPT | Aalto AI Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Protects your data (does not train LLMs) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Reads uploaded files (PDF) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Analyses images, converts to text | ✅ | ✅ |
| Possibility to discuss Aalto's content and data |
❌ Never |
✅ Chat with Aalto.fi (now for staff) Chat with Student Guide (coming up) MyCourses AI Assistant (coming up) |
| The tool can be used by including Aalto's... | ||
| ... public content | ✅ | ✅ |
| ... internal content | ❌ | ✅ |
| ... confidential content | ❌ | ✅ |
| ... secret content | ❌ | ❌ |
The ways of us using AI
Discover how fellow Aalto students are using AI to level up real‑world skills and why mastering AI is fast becoming a core competence for your future career. In these bite‑size videos, they share practical tips and ethical best practices with Aalto’s AI Assistant to help you build confidence and use AI responsibly. Press play and get inspired.
Watch video
Watch video
Watch video
Tips for studying with AI
Translate Office Documents
- Word documents can be translated in their entirety at once.
- PowerPoint presentations can be translated by paragraph or word.
- Get to know Microsoft 365 tools to get started
Let teams join your meetings — Aalto AI assistant takes the notes
- A series of group projects is coming up and no one is taking notes? Tip: Write down a few basics by hand, then a) let Teams or Zoom capture your study group meetings as a transcript. One phone is enough; not everyone needs to join the meeting.
- First, get everyone’s consent and, for example in Teams, enable transcription only. After the meeting - no matter how messy – b) copy the transcription and c) ask the AI Assistant to generate notes from the discussion; you can also provide a brief prompt with key terms to guide it.
Important: Do not share Aalto-internal or confidential conversations with ChatGPT.
AI tools for finding materials
Aalto-Primo
The Learning Centre offers Aalto-Primo AI, which provides summaries of topics based on international research articles. You can find the summarising funcion in the upper left corner of Aalto-Primo.
SCOPUS (Elsevier)
Scopus is a large abstract and citation database. Outside campus network use VPN connection.
AI news
New podcast explores Finnish contributions to artificial intelligence
Researchers Arno Solin ja Eric Malmi interview pioneers, entrepreneurs and experts about the AI field's history, disruptive consequences and the probability of humanity's destruction.
Register now for Inventors in AI, biotechnology or the new multidisciplinary cohort
Three innovation trainings are coming up this fall and registration is now open for all Aalto researchers!
Prototyping and Validation Grant: Deployable
Four Aalto master's students built a physical AI startup on a borrowed GPU, beat PhD teams at a hackathon, and received Aalto's prototyping and validation grant.
Applications open for Innovation Postdoc in AI
A fully funded, 12–month career track to turn your doctoral discoveries into a deep-tech startup.AI events
AI Training 20 Aug 2026 – AI in teacher’s routines – Examples, practicalities and discussions (in Finnish)
An interactive, hands-on training on everyday uses of generative AI in teaching (course design, materials, communication), plus an overview of the MyCourses AI Assistant. The session is especially useful for teachers who want to provide students with controlled, course-embedded AI support.
AI Training 24 Aug 2026 – AI in teacher’s routines – Examples, practicalities and discussions (in English)
An interactive, hands-on training on everyday uses of generative AI in teaching (course design, materials, communication), plus an overview of the MyCourses AI Assistant. The session is especially useful for teachers who want to provide students with controlled, course-embedded AI support.
AI Training 14 September – Getting Started with Generative AI – Safe and Responsible Use at Aalto (in English)
This training introduces Aalto’s generative AI tools and how to use them responsibly in your studies, teaching, or daily work. You'll learn how the Aalto AI Assistant works, what kind of content is safe to use with AI, and how to write effective prompts.