Using AI responsibly: a checklist for every Guyanese

What you will learn

• A simple checklist you can use every day
• What fairness, honesty and accountability mean for AI
• When to say "AI helped with this"
• When to leave AI out

Why this lesson closes the course

You now know what AI is, how to prompt it, and how it is being used in schools, farms, hospitals, offices and offshore. The last skill is the most important: judgement. AI makes it very easy to produce things. It does not make it easy to produce the right things.

Leaders in Guyana and the region keep coming back to this point. The President told teachers that the response to AI should be to equip young people to use it "responsibly, ethically and intelligently" (DPI, 5 Oct 2026). One of the four aims of the CTU Caribbean AI Task Force is promoting inclusive, ethical and responsible AI (CTU, 18 Jul 2025). The Ministry of Public Service teaches "Ethical Use of AI" to public servants (CEIT). And the University of Guyana's MSc in AI includes a course called Responsible and Ethical Artificial Intelligence (University of Guyana).

The seven-point checklist: T-R-U-S-T-E-D

Before you use, send or post anything AI helped make, run through these:

1. T - True? Have I checked every fact, number, name, date and price against a reliable source?
2. R - Respectful? Could this hurt, embarrass or misrepresent a real person or community?
3. U - Understood? Do I understand what it says well enough to explain it myself?
4. S - Safe data? Did I keep passwords, ID numbers, customer details and private information out of the tool?
5. T - Told? Do I need to tell people AI helped? (School work, official reports and anything where people expect your own words: usually yes.)
6. E - Eyes on it? Has a person, me, read the final version before it went out?
7. D - Decision mine? If this affects someone's money, health, job, schooling or rights, is a responsible person making the final decision?

If any answer is "no", fix it before you go further.

Three big ideas in plain words

Fairness

AI learns from examples. If the examples are unbalanced, the results can be unfair. A tool trained mostly on faces from other countries may work less well on Guyanese faces. A loan tool trained on past decisions may repeat past unfairness. Ask: "Was this tested on people like us?"

Honesty

Do not pass off AI work as all your own where that matters. Do not use AI to create fake reviews, fake news, fake photos of real people or fake documents. Label AI-made images in public posts, for example "Image created with AI".

Accountability

When something goes wrong, a person or organisation must answer for it. "The computer did it" is not an excuse. If you use AI in your work, you are responsible for what you send out.

When to label AI content

A simple rule of thumb:

• Always label: AI-made photos or videos that show realistic people or events; AI help in school work (follow your school's and CXC's rules); AI help in official or research documents.
• Usually no label needed: AI helped you fix spelling or reword your own message, and you checked it.
• Never do: AI content that pretends to be a real person saying or doing something they did not.

When not to use AI at all

• When the decision is about someone's life, health, freedom or livelihood and no qualified person will check it.
• When you would have to give the tool confidential or personal data and you are not sure where it goes.
• In exams or tests where it is not allowed.
• When you need an official answer, like a law, a tax rule, a court date or a medical dose. Go to the official source or a qualified professional.
• When you are angry. Do not use AI to write a reply you would regret.

Example: a community group's Mashramani flyer

A youth group in New Amsterdam uses AI to design a flyer for their Mashramani float practice. They:

1. Ask AI for three slogan ideas and pick one.
2. Use an AI image tool for a colourful background, without any real person's face.
3. Check the date, time and venue with the group leader.
4. Add a small line: "Background image created with AI".
5. Have two members read it before it is posted.

That is T-R-U-S-T-E-D in action. (Made-up example.)

Your next steps

• Take the quiz below to finish the course.
• Keep using the T-R-U-S-T-E-D checklist.
• Follow the GuyanaHub "AI in Guyana" timeline for new developments, each with its source.
• Teach one person what you learned. That is how a whole country gets ready.

Key words

• Ethics: ideas about what is right and fair.
• Accountability: being responsible and able to explain your actions.
• Label: a short note saying AI was used.
• Misrepresent: to show someone or something falsely.