PHYS 3050 Writing in Physics (Wilkerson): Using AI Ethically & Effectively

You're probably using AI to support your research when you use Libraries databases to search. Many tools use machine learning or artificial intelligence to identify papers that might be related to each other, or to analyze large datasets to identify influences.

Generative AI like ChatGPT, Bard, or Bing is another specific application of AI. It is designed to generate responses in natural language, and was trained on a large corpus of text. That means it's incorporated the information and leanings of that text, and uses it to respond to queries. 

Generative AI occupies a complicated space in academic writing and research as an emerging tool for which mores and ethics aren't yet solidified. If you're working with a generative AI, consider the following questions

• What is the purpose of your writing?
  • Are you writing to process ideas and generate new knowledge?
  • Are you writing to perfect your communication skills?
  • How does using generative AI support or hinder these aims?
• Are you willing to cite the AI service you used in the final publication or paper as an intellectual contributor to your end product?
  • If not, consider whether this is the right tool to use.
• Have you reviewed any summaries, articles, or other content found or generated by the AI service you used to be certain they are accurate and/or real?
  • AI will answer whatever you ask by generating probable text. This may or may not be accurate or even real--AI will give you a citation that plausibly could exist just as readily as one that does exist.
• Have you supplemented gaps in the AI service you used to ensure solid understanding and coverage of the subject?
• Are you willing and able to consent for the content you put in to a generative AI service to be used by that AI?

• Not all free AI has the same acess to content (e.g. at time of writing, ChatGTP last had access to the internet in 2021)
• Generative AI was trained on the kind of information you're searching for, but it isn't a search engine or designed to find information.
• Generative AI is exactly that: It generates the most probable text in relation to your query, which may or may not align with content that actually exists.

"The value of the [literature review] is in the researcher's advice and knowledge," not just summarizing, as ChatGPT can.