Generative Artificial Intelligence has been impacting research for a long time. Specialized, "narrow AI" tools have been used to accomplish routine tasks and automate output, while generalized AI tools have helped in aggregating and organizing existing literature, along with familiar tools like Grammarly and features like Microsoft's Editor and Designer to assist in the drafting and revising of papers, submissions, and presentations. The refinement of these tools adds new assistant tools to help find and evaluate existing research papers to find niche areas of specialties or complete a broad survey of publications around a particular topic or research question.
Popular AI-Assisted Research Tools
When it comes to using AI to find and evaluate research, there are multiple platforms that are establishing themselves as leaders in the area, with even more incorporating new ways to find and access research papers and data across many disciplines.
Before signing up for any platform, make sure you have read and understand their site policies, user agreements, and privacy policies. Never enter confidential or private information into any AI tool.
AI-assisted searches and data organization and collection are subject to the same limitations as more generalized AI - they are not perfect and do not replace human evaluation of content and output. They may contain biases in their results and the ways they operate to produce returns on searches. If you choose to adopt these tools, make sure you keep in mind these limitations and measure your use of the tools.
Some professional organizations and publishers have release guidelines for the acceptable use(s) of AI during stages of the publication and review processes. If you plan to submit work for publication, make sure you have read through and understand any guidelines or restrictions around the use of AI where you plan to submit.
