By Ashish Mogra, Asistant Professor, STME
ChatGPT is a large language model (LLM) based AI chatbot developed by Open AI. The chatbot is designed to generate responses to prompts provided by its users. Ever since its launch, the AI tool has disrupted every industry and has been a topic of curiosity among tech enthusiasts. ChatGPT’s most distinct feature is its ability to generate almost accurate responses on prompts for a wide variety of domains within minutes. According to a report published by the National Library of Medicine, ChatGPT has over 175 billion parameters for processing a prompt and generating a response.
Enhancing Research Efficiency by Using AI
Academic research involves analysing a range of already available and reliable source materials, including acclaimed theses and research papers on a particular subject domain and arriving at a result. Academic research involves tedious tasks such as proofreading, compiling, analysing and extracting relevant data from the wide range of data already available. Most of these tasks could be performed through the assistance of AI tools like ChatGPT, saving academicians’ time and crucial resources. This will help academicians to focus on other critical tasks that involve the application of critical thinking. ChatGPT’s assistance in academic research will not only save time and resources but will also increase the efficiency of research and improve the productivity of the researchers.
Improving Accessibility of Information
With its ability to compile and process a vast amount of information within minutes, it can increase the accessibility of information for researchers as most research work involves the collection and compilation of data. Such ready availability of data could prove to be time and cost-saving for academicians.
Language Translation and Multilingual Research
Recently, ChatGPT was equipped to provide responses in and translate multiple languages. The revolutionary AI chatbot is also capable of understanding, translating and responding in a number of Indian languages. This ability makes it a reliable tool for local and regional researchers to aid them in translating source materials originally written in another language. They can effectively communicate with the chatbot in a language of their understanding, making research seamless.
Aiding Collaborative Research
ChatGPT can serve as an effective brainstorming and idea-generation tool. It can also help in guiding researchers on how to go about researching a particular topic, providing them with useful tools and strategies to perform their exploration and streamlining the entire process. The tool is also equipped with problem-solving abilities by effectively suggesting solutions to complex problems.
Personalised Learning and Research Gateways
As we have discussed in this article so far, ChatGPT can summarise information, break down complex concepts and compile vast information on a range of topics, as per the requirements of students and researchers, making it a reliable tool for personalised learning. Furthermore, ChatGPT is also capable of aiding students and learners with brainstorming and ideation for academic exploration as per their academic needs and understanding.
Ethical and Integrity Concerns
As we conclude, we must consider the ethical and integrity concerns surrounding the conversations the integration of ChatGPT into academic research. Although ChatGPT can successfully assist academics in their explorations, it can’t be fully relied upon. Most of the responses generated by ChatGPT are derived from a set of algorithms and lack any practical understanding. While the advanced chatbot is capable of generating ‘human-like’ responses, it can’t emulate human objectivity and critical thinking, two of the most important requisites of academic research.
Therefore, it is important that for the time being, the role of ChatGPT and similar AI tools be confined to assisting humans in academic inquiries and not to emulate them. ChatGPT, if integrated with academic research, as explored throughout the article, can prove to be cost-effective and time-saving, but has to be done with human intervention for it to work efficiently.
