University Libraries The Research Process and Use of AI

Getting started on research can be intimidating, especially if you are new to research or getting reintroduced to research. Luckily, there are resources available to you! The libraries, librarians, and online tools such as research guides or videos can help you get started. AI tools are emerging as a great resource to help students get started on research.

The Research Process and AI Tools

AI tools can be a wonderful resource for students and researchers. These tools can help researchers develop their topic, find new sources, and explain concepts.

Note: AI Tools vary in their capabilities and cost as well as their popularity. Talk with your instructor about their classroom policies regarding AI before you start using these tools.

AI Tools for Exploring and Finding

Here are some examples of types of AI tools used for exploring your research topic and finding sources:

ChatGPT: is a generative AI chatbot created by OpenAI. It's capable of carrying conversations with human users and generating a variety of text outputs such as instructions, recipes, personal letters and much more.
ELICIT: calls itself a research assistant. While similar to ChatGPT, ELICIT draws its information from Semantic Scholar, a search engine for academic publications (but only those that are freely available).
Perplexity: another generative AI chatbot. It draws data and information from several large language models include GPT-4, which is used by ChatGPT.

AI Tools Used for Communicating

Here are some examples of types of AI tools used for communicating and sharing your research:

Grammarly: is an AI writing partner. It helps writers throughout the writing process from the beginning with keyword suggestions, spell and grammar editing, and assisting with outlines.
Quillbot: Similar to Grammarly, in that it assists with writing. Users can summarize writing, check their papers for spelling and grammar errors, translate into different languages, and create citations.
Copilot for Microsoft 365: is a virtual assistant created by Microsoft that works with MS Office products to boost productivity. It will edit, summarize and help in writing Word documents. In MS PowerPoint it can help create, sumarrize and organize your presentation.

If you choose to use AI tools you are responsible for approaching AI in an ethical and responsible manner. But as with any search tool, researchers should explore various resources rather than limiting themselves to one. This will help reduce the likelihood of bias.

Quick Check

Which of the following are ethical uses for AI for research?

Coming up with list of keywords for searching: Correct! It is ethical to have AI help you come up with a list of keywords for searching
Having AI explain a complex concept: Correct! It is ethical to have AI assist in explaining complex concepts
Helping you draft an email for your professor: Correct! It is ethical to have AI help you draft an email to your professor
Having AI complete an assignment for you: It is unethical to have AI complete an assignment for you. This is because AI uses large pools of stored information, created elsewhere, in creating its answers. Also, AI does not give credit to the authors who provided the information used.