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Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Generative AI in the Research Process

Try using a generative AI tool, like ChatGPT, to brainstorm your topic. In the example below, I'm interested in the general topic of the use of AI in health care. This is is a very broad topic and needs to be narrowed a bit. I'm not sure what particular aspect of this topic I might be interested in, and I use ChatGPT to explore facets of this topic. 

Wharton professor, Ethan Mollick, has some useful advice about prompting AI:

"The best way to use AI systems is not to craft the perfect prompt, but rather to use it interactively. Try asking for something. Then ask the AI to modify or adjust its output. Work with the AI, rather than trying to issue a single command that does everything you want. The more you experiment, the better off you are."

Systems like ChatGPT are good at quickly generating text that is hard to distinguish from text created by humans. While impressive, it is important to remember that generative AI does not have the capacity to understand the meaning behind the words it is producing. Because of this, you will want to use these tools as starting (not ending) points in your research process.

When you have settled in on a topic that is sufficiently narrow for your research needs, it is often helpful to gather background information on your topic before jumping into library research databases. 

Like searching Google and Wikipedia to build your knowledge about your topic, you can also use generative AI tools for this purpose.

A challenging part of moving from searching non-scholarly to scholarly sources is figuring out the keywords or search terms that will be useful in library research databases.

Try using generative AI tools to help brainstorm keywords you might use to start researching your topic.

Many scholars have reported instances of generative AI tools fabricating or "hallucinating" citations to sources. This technologies' capability may improve in the future, but consider whether it is worth your time to fact-check whether the AI's source are real and accurate. It might be easier to find and evaluate sources yourself. 

Library databases provide information about the publications that are being searched and have algorithms that rank the relevancy of search results. For most (if not all) current generative AI tools, it is unclear the scope of the information in their training data and how they rank or select suggested citations.  When it comes to this stage of the research process, you will want to use generative AI tools as starting (not ending) points.

At the bottom of this page is guidance for using Google Scholar to find/verify sources that the generative AI has provided as potential sources. Additionally, if the citation is legitimate, but might be outdated for your topic, the guidance below will help you use Google Scholar to find newer, related sources.

If you have any questions or need help finding credible sources and relevant databases for your topic, do not hesitate to use the library's Ask-a-Librarian service for expert guidance and advice.

Double-Checking the Citations Above

 

Price, W. N., & Cohen, I. G. (2019). Privacy in the age of medical big data. Nature Medicine, 25(1), 37-43.

This is an actual article and can be found here

Topol, E. J. (2019). High-performance medicine: the convergence of human and artificial intelligence. Nature Medicine, 25(1), 44-56.

This is an actual article and can be found here

Mittelstadt, B. D., Allo, P., Taddeo, M., Wachter, S., & Floridi, L. (2016). The ethics of algorithms: Mapping the debate. Big Data & Society, 3(2), 2053951716679679.

This is an actual article and can be found here

Caliskan, A., Bryson, J. J., & Narayanan, A. (2017). Semantics derived automatically from language corpora contain human-like biases. Science, 356(6334), 183-186.

This is an actual article and can be found here

Goodman, B., & Flaxman, S. (2017). European Union regulations on algorithmic decision-making and a “right to explanation”. AI Magazine, 38(3), 50-57.

This is an actual article and can be found here

Lentzsch, C., & Millum, J. (2019). Allocating resources in humanitarian medicine. Bioethics, 33(4), 437-444.

There is an actual article with this title and it can be found here; however the citation provided appears to have fabricated all of the other citation information (the authors, the title of the journal, publication date, volume/issue, page numbers); additionally, the article with this title is of questionable relevance to the topic

Taylor, K. R., & Gorin, M. H. (2019). The ethics of artificial intelligence in health care: A systematic review. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, 101, 101-111.

This citation appears to be completely fabricated

Shah, A., & Castro, D. (2019). Artificial intelligence in health care: Anticipating challenges regarding ethics, privacy, and bias. AMA Journal of Ethics, 21(2), 121-128.

This citation appears to be completely fabricated

Smith, A. M., & Altschuler, E. L. (2018). Artificial intelligence in the emergency department: Implications for the future of clinical practice. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 71(1), 43-46.

This citation appears to be completely fabricated

Char, D. S., & Shah, N. H. (2017). Magnus, meet Siri: how artificial intelligence can help improve medical ethics. Annals of Translational Medicine, 5(14), 295.

This citation appears to be completely fabricated

Using Google Scholar to Find Known Articles and the Articles Citing Them

Once you have found potential sources, you will need to evaluate them to determine whether they are appropriate to use in your project. 

Try using generative AI tools to help you walk through some of the questions about a source you will want to consider in your evaluation process.

Remember that generative AI usually does not always have access to the text of a source and cannot understand the meaning of text. You will still need to use your own critical thinking skills to make a final determination of a source's credibility and usefulness.

If you need help evaluating sources, speak to your professor/instructor and/or use the library's Ask-a-Librarian service.

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