Our AI Policy
The AI Social Worker
Last Updated: August 2026
Purpose
Artificial intelligence is central to the work of The AI Social Worker. We teach about AI, evaluate emerging technologies, develop educational resources, conduct research and scholarship, and help social workers and organizations navigate the opportunities and ethical challenges associated with AI.
Because AI is part of our work, we believe we have a responsibility to be transparent about how we use it ourselves.
This policy describes how The AI Social Worker uses artificial intelligence in our business, educational, consulting, and content-development activities and the principles that guide our decisions.
Our approach is grounded in a simple belief:
AI should enhance human expertise and capacity without replacing human judgment, relationships, accountability, or professional ethics.
We do not believe responsible AI use requires choosing between innovation and caution. It requires both.
How We Use AI
We see and use AI as a tool that can expand our capacity for creating, organizing, thinking, and exploring ideas. It can aid us in moving more efficiently through early drafts, surface various different angles, and undergo through test possibilities we might not have considered on our own. At the same time, we are very clear with its limitations. AI does not possess professional judgment, ethical reasoning, lived experiences, or the ability to hold relationships. Those will forever continue to remain human responsibilities.
Our approach is intentional. We don’t use AI simply because it is available, nor do we avoid it out of the fear of what it could potentially be. We ask whether its use is purposeful, appropriate—aligned with the values of social work. When AI contributes to our educational materials, research, content, or consulting work, the final product is always reviewed, refined, tested, and owned by a human professional.
We use AI to support our expertise— never to replace it.
The AI Social Worker may use generative AI and other AI-enabled technologies to support our work.
We use these tools to enhance human expertise and capacity — never to replace human judgment, accountability, or professional ethics.
Brainstorming and idea development;
Outlining and organizing content;
Editing and refining written materials;
Developing educational activities and examples;
Generating hypothetical scenarios or case examples;
summarizing or organizing non-confidential information;
Supporting administrative and operational tasks;
Exploring and evaluating emerging tools;
Assisting with research processes;
Developing training and presentation materials;
Experimenting with new AI capabilities to better understand their professional applications, benefits, and limitations/
Human Review & Accountability
We maintain human responsibility for the work produced by The AI Social Worker. AI-generated content is not automatically accepted as accurate simply because it is well written or appears authoritative. When AI contributes to our professional or educational materials, we review, edit, contextualize, and, when appropriate, verify the information before presenting it as our work.
Professional recommendations, ethical interpretations, training content, consulting guidance, and other substantive work remain subject to human professional judgment.
Transparency is a core value of The AI Social Worker.
We believe people should have a reasonable understanding of when AI has materially contributed to work they are receiving, particularly when AI's involvement extends beyond routine functions such as spelling, grammar, formatting, or basic editing. When AI plays a substantial role in developing educational, scholarly, consulting, or other professional work, we aim to disclose its use.
Transparency
Accuracy & Verification
Generative AI can produce inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, biased, or fabricated information. We therefore do not treat AI-generated information as an authoritative source.
We seek to verify important information using appropriate sources. Scholarly claims should be supported by legitimate scholarship rather than an AI system's representation of that scholarship. Legal, regulatory, ethical, or professional guidance should be checked against appropriate authoritative sources.
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Bias, Equity & Accessibility
AI systems can reflect and amplify biases contained within their training data, design, implementation, and the broader systems in which they operate. We therefore approach AI-generated content critically and consider whose experiences, languages, cultures, identities, and perspectives may be underrepresented or misrepresented.
Our work also recognizes that access to AI is unequal. Cost, disability, language, digital literacy, geography, infrastructure, institutional resources, and other factors shape who benefits from emerging technologies. We strive to approach AI innovation through an equity and accessibility lens rather than assuming technological advancement benefits everyone equally.
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Environmental Impact & Responsible AI Use
The AI Social Worker recognizes that artificial intelligence is not environmentally neutral. Developing, training, and operating AI systems requires significant computational infrastructure that can consume energy, water, and other natural resources.
As an organization that uses and teaches about AI, we believe responsible AI use includes considering whether the use of AI is necessary, proportionate, and purposeful. We seek to avoid unnecessary or excessive AI use when a simpler or less resource-intensive approach can reasonably accomplish the same goal. We also encourage critical consideration of environmental impact when evaluating AI tools, vendors, organizational adoption, and large-scale implementation. We commit to remaining informed and incorporating sustainable practices.
Intellectual Property & Original Work
AI may assist our creative and professional processes, but it does not replace original expertise, scholarship, lived experience, or professional contribution.
We seek to respect copyright, attribution, intellectual property, and ownership when developing AI-assisted materials.
Evaluating & Demonstrating AI Tools
Because our work includes AI education, we may test, demonstrate, review, discuss, or compare AI products and platforms. Our discussion or demonstration of a technology should not automatically be interpreted as an endorsement.
Any sponsorship, affiliate relationship, paid partnership, or other material relationship that could reasonably influence a recommendation should be disclosed. At this time, the AI Social Worker has no paid sponsorships or affiliates.
Our Approach to Innovation
The AI Social Worker supports responsible experimentation with emerging technology. We believe professionals cannot meaningfully evaluate AI without understanding how it works in practice. We therefore actively explore emerging tools, test new capabilities, examine their limitations, and consider how they may affect social work and human services.
But experimentation does not mean automatic adoption. Sometimes the most responsible use of AI is choosing not to use it during certain tasks.
Our Commitment
The AI Social Worker is committed to approaching artificial intelligence with curiosity without hype, innovation without abandoning caution, and technological fluency without sacrificing the human values at the center of social work. Our standard is whether its use is ethical, thoughtful, equitable, transparent, and worthy of the trust people place in our work. Human judgment remains at the center.
Our AI practices will continue to evolve as technologies, research, professional standards, laws, and ethical guidance develop.
We will periodically review and update this policy to reflect what we learn.
AI Transparency Statement: This policy was drafted with the support of ChatGPT to assist with organization, language development, and refinement. The content was reviewed, edited, and approved by Dr. Marina Badillo-Diaz to ensure that it accurately reflects the organization’s values, ethical commitments, professional expertise, and approach to responsible AI use.
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