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Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI and Research

Are AI Tools Reliable?

These resources can give you a better understanding of how artificial intelligence tools can be used in your academic research. If used effectively and responsibly, AI tools can help with your understanding of a subject but shouldn't be used as a shortcut to complete your assignments. 

AI is Not Always Trustworthy

  • ChatGPT was trained using a massive dataset of text written by humans that was pulled from the Internet.
  • AI responses can reflect the biases of the humans who wrote the text used in the training dataset.
  • ChatGPT is not connected to the Internet and the data used to train it was collected prior to 2021. 
  • AI tools sometimes "hallucinate" or make things up.
    Example: It is known to create citations for articles that don't actually exist

 

"All outputs cannot be trusted as absolute truth. Instead, we have to use human discernment, analysis and creativity to use AI outputs ethically and responsibly."

Rudra, S. (2023, March 30). ChatGPT in Education: The pros, Cons and Unknowns of Generative AI.               Technology Solutions That Drive Education.                  

Pros and Cons

Useful For:                                       Not Recommended For:               

Brainstorming & search terms                                        Writing an essay or speech

Generating outlines                                                        Providing references

Focusing a topic                                                             Verifiable information

Understanding difficult subjects                                      Unbiased perspectives

Prompt Examples

Generate five potential research questions related to the Civil War.

Suggest three essay topics that explore the ethical implications of using AI in college.

I need to write a five-page paper for an ENG 101 class on social media and teenagers. What are some questions that I could consider?

Provide a list of 5 topics on how technology is changing the medical field.

Give me a list of search terms that I could use for a paper on social media and teenagers.

I'm writing a paper on the use of propaganda in the Civil War. What are some search terms that I can use for my research?

I am writing an ethical argument essay on the right to die; what is a search strategy for my library databases?

Generate 10 keywords that will help me explore this question: "What are the issues of legalization of marijuana?"

Create a detailed outline for a research paper discussing the psychological effects of social media on adolescents for an informative English research paper.

Write a simple outline for a three-page argumentative paper on the issues of global warming.

Give me an outline for an informative speech on the pros and cons of vaccinations.

ChatGPT Prompting: Your Ticket to Superior Research and Learning

Fact-Check AI

Never assume that the information provided is correct. Here are two basic strategies for evaluating information produced by an AI tool:

 

Lateral Reading

  • Check other trustworthy sources to verify the information provided by ChatGPT. This might involve checking our Britannica Academic database or conducting a Google search to confirm the existence of the person, thing, event, or other details mentioned by ChatGPT.
  • When you look at multiple sources, you maximize lateral reading and can help avoid bias from a single source. 

 

Check Citations

  • If an AI tool provides a reference or citation, confirm that the source actually exists.
    • Copy the citation into a search tool like Google, Google Scholar, or Garrett College's Library's Quick Search to see if it is included. If not, you will need to expand your search and investigate further. 
    • Do a Google search for the lead author. Make sure it's a real person with legitimate credentials. 
  • If the source is real, check that it actually contains the information that the AI tool says it does. Read the source or its abstract!   

 

When prompted if ChatGPT provided reliable sources and citations, ChatGPT offered the following advice:

"As an AI language model, I can provide information based on the vast dataset I was trained on, which includes a wide range of sources up until my last training cut-off in early 2022. However, I do not have real-time access to external sources or the ability to provide citations in a traditional sense...for academic or professional purposes requiring formal citations, it's always best to consult primary sources or use specialized databases and scholarly resources."

OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Jun 25 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

Sources

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