AI Use in Academic Research

MENTOR

Get feedback about your prompts and ask follow-up questions such as: “What’s another important aspect of this topic to consider?” “How can I avoid plagiarism in my college sociology paper?”

Errors could be suggested.

COACH

To generate initial ideas; for example, if you’re struggling with writer’s block, it can be used to draft ideas, plans, or structures that you can adapt based on your own understanding of the topic. Get feedback on the overview of your question or writing sample. Ex: “For the following text, challenge my key points and help me identify possible gaps so that I can strengthen my argument.”

Response may not match your style. Advice could be incorrect.

TUTOR

Personalized direct instruction on a topic.

The knowledge base used to train AI could be too limited in its scope of information. AI can produce hallucinations.

TEAMMATE

Brainstorming: if you’re working on a group project and want to widen perspectives, you can get alternate viewpoints.

Viewpoints could be hallucinations or reflective of hidden biases.

TOOL

Get tasks done quickly, such as translating, grammar check, summarizing text, creating outlines (prompt: “create an outline from the following set of notes”) You can even create a quiz by providing detailed parameters in your prompt. See how to do this in ChatGPT.  Some sample quiz-making programs here.

If this is overdone, your own willingness to think and learn could be undermined.