The best AI tools to power your academic research

20 June 2023. The best AI tools to power your academic research. 

The future of academia is likely to be transformed by AI language models such as ChatGPT. Academia and artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming increasingly intertwined, and as AI continues to advance, it is likely that academics will continue to either embrace its potential or voice concerns about its risks. 

"ChatGPT will redefine the future of academic research. But most academics don't know how to use it intelligently. There are two camps in academia. The first is the early adopters of artificial intelligence, and the second is the professors and academics who think AI corrupts academic integrity," Mushtaq Bilal, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern Denmark.

ChatGPT is only one of the many AI-powered apps you can use for academic writing, or to mimic conversations with renowned academics.

Here are other AI-driven software to help your academic efforts, handpicked by Bilal.

1. Consensus

• Consensus looks like most search engines but what sets it apart is that you ask Yes/No questions, to which it provides answers with the consensus of the academic community.
• Users can also ask Consensus about the relationship between concepts and about something’s cause and effect. For example: Does immigration improve the economy?
• Consensus would reply to that question by stating that most studies have found that immigration generally improves the economy, while also providing a list of the academic papers it used to arrive at the consensus, and ultimately sharing the summaries of the top articles it analysed.
• The AI-powered search engine is only equipped to respond to six topics: economics, sleep, social policy, medicine, and mental health and health supplements.

2. Elicit.org

• Elicit, "the AI research assistant" according to its founders, also uses language models to answer questions, but its knowledge is solely based on research, enabling "intelligent conversations" and brainstorming with a very knowledgeable and verified source.
• The software can also find relevant papers without perfect keyword matches, summarise them and extract key information.

3. Scite.ai

• Although language models like ChatGPT are not designed to intentionally deceive, it has been proven they can generate text that is not based on factual information, and include fake citations to papers that don't exist.
• But there is an AI-powered app that gives you real citations to actually published papers - Scite.
• Similar to Elicit, upon being asked a question, Scite delivers answers with a detailed list of all the papers cited in the response.

“This is one of my favourite ones to improve work flows. Also, if I make a claim and that claim has been refuted or corroborated by various people or various journals, Scite gives me the exact number. So this is really very, very powerful. If I were to teach any seminar on writing, I would teach how to use this app” Mushtaq Bilal

4. Research Rabbit

“Research Rabbit is an incredible tool that FAST-TRACKS your research. Best part: it's FREE. But most academics don't know about it.”  Mushtaq Bilal

• Called by its founders "the Spotify of research," Research Rabbit allows adding academic papers to "collections".
• These collections allow the software to learn about the user’s interests, prompting new relevant recommendations.
• Research Rabbit also allows visualising the scholarly network of papers and co-authorships in graphs, so that users can follow the work of a single topic or author and dive deeper into their research.

5. ChatPDF

• ChatPDF is an AI-powered app that makes reading and analysing journal articles easier and faster.
• It's like ChatGPT, but for research papers.
• Users start by uploading the research paper PDF into the AI software and then start asking it questions.
• The app then prepares a short summary of the paper and provides the user with examples of questions that it could answer based on the full article.

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28 June 2023. ZOOM session on ChatGPT for science

RECORDING FORTHCOMING

The International Science Council (ISC) wants to take benefit of the new wave of artificial intelligence (AI) that has been introduced to the wider public last year since the launch of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot that promises organizations to increase their productivity by automating regular tasks.

This practical session, was particularly aimed at those in communications or involved in outreach activities, which provided an overview of this most popular generative AI tool and guidance on how it can be used effectively. The session was facilitated twice to accommodate different time zones and is a direct result of requests from ISC Members at the Mid-term meeting held in May: Session 1: 28 June, 07:00 UTC or 09:00 CEST / Session 2: 28 June, 15:00 UTC or 17:00 CEST

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The International Science Council catalyses and convenes scientific expertise, advice and influence on issues of major concern to both science and society, through a unique global membership of natural and social sciences and humanities.

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