Research Guides: Using AI Tools in Your Research: Text-based AI and Machine Learning

Text-based Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can be useful for you when you are brainstorming topic ideas or trying to come up with keywords to use to search on a specific topic. Remember that these tools are NOT sources of knowledge -- they are fluency-based text-language generators ("large language models"), which means that they literally guess what word comes next.

ChatGPT
Limitations: May occasionally generate incorrect information. May occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content. Limited knowledge of world and events after 2021. Does not "know" things - generates text based on probability, and will change its answers each time you ask a question.

ChatGPT cannot yet find specific peer-reviewed articles, but it can help you get ideas for how to search for scholarship. It can suggest keywords, search strings, and format citations.

Example: I asked ChatGPT for some keywords to search for sources on the Conquest of Mexico. ChatGPT generated the following list, is mostly fine until about the 15th option:

Here are some keywords that you could use to research the conquest of Mexico:

Hernán Cortés, Aztecs, Montezuma II, Spanish Conquest, Tenochtitlan, Indigenous peoples of Mexico, Conquistadors, New Spain, Mesoamerica, Nahuatl language, Mexica, Tlaxcala, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, La Malinche, (less-than-accurate keywords begin here): Francisco Pizarro (best known for expeditions that led to conquest of Peru - not Mexico), Inca Empire (The primary indigenous empire of Peru), Conquest of Peru, Colonialism (too broad), Imperialism (too broad), Indigenous resistance (too broad)

You can prompt ChatGPT to be more specific in one or more areas, but note that the same will happen - a mix of good ideas, wrong ideas, and overly broad suggestions.

In addition to ChatGPT, there are several other AI tools that are similarly useful.

Bing AI
Connected to the internet, and can look up facts. Creative mode uses GPT-4, which offers the most features.
Google Bard
Current model is not very accurate, but likely to improve.

Using Machine Learning for Finding Research

These tools can help you discover new sources either similar to one you've already found or those relevant to your question or topic. They have slightly different features so we encourage you to experiment with them and see what you can find. Except for Science Direct, these are free sources, and are not very clear about the sources of the scholarship in their applications.

ScienceDirect
Register to create a user-based profile that will filter research relevant to your topic. May become overly narrow in its recommendations!
Consensus
A search engine that uses AI to extract, aggregate, and distill findings from research articles. Limited scope but you can ask it research questions, including on questions on relationships between concepts, yes/no questions, and the effects of a concept. Has LESS than what is available through the library website.
Elicit
An AI tool that finds articles and summarizes article abstracts, while also mining for keywords/subject headings. Elicit can find relevant papers without perfect keyword match, summarize takeaways from the papers specific to your question, and extract key information from the papers. Includes full-text and articles behind paywalls.
ResearchRabbit
A citation-based literature mapping tool, showing links and relationships between authors and sources. Allows you create collections, categorize resources, and share collections.