It Takes Two to Engage: Ethical AI Use in Research Skill Development for Security Studies Students

Various generative AI (GenAI) tools are increasingly utilized by students, creating a grey area where it is challenging to determine whether AI is used without violating academic integrity and whether it is assisting or impeding student engagement and success. To our knowledge, there is no definitive way to prove AI ghostwriting. AI is also increasingly utilized to enhance student engagement (Bauer et al., 2025; Chen et al., 2025). Recognizing that GenAI is here to stay, we are interested in finding the best way to leverage GenAI’s benefits while not jeopardizing educational integrity. Hence, the following question guided our efforts: How can GenAI tools be utilized to increase student engagement and student success? We believe this investigation may help determine/define a safe interval of AI utilization that is mutually agreeable between students and instructors. It takes two to dance, after all.