A few months ago, I liked a post on LinkedIn that shared a list of AI tools for research. Since then, my newsfeed has been flooded with AI, with countless self-proclaimed experts sharing the same tools and content, just with a fancier visual.
I felt overwhelmed and had the FOMO (fear of missing out) mentality - I felt like I had to download and save all these tools because they might be useful for my research process.
When I did have time to try some of them, I realized they didn't actually help me "boost productivity" or "doing research super easy with this tool" as those experts claimed.
For example, Elicit, a much-hyped AI tool for literature review. It helps search and summarize research papers quickly to give a quick snapshot to a specific question.
However, for me, a thorough literature review needs time, lots of effort, and a critical mind. It's a meticulous process with many interconnected steps. Quickly skimming a few papers on Elicit cannot provide a strong and sufficient information for in-depth analysis and synthesis.
READING is a crucial part of the literature review process.
Asking Elicit to read for me and then add its outputs into my papers make me feel uneasy when I don't fully immerse myself in reading the papers and synthesizing the information myself. Relying on Elicit's summaries also makes me feel "empty" - I lose the deep work experience of fully focusing on reading and doing research.
So Elicit only helps with a tiny aspect in a whole process, and is far from being "so powerful" "the hottest" and "indispensable" as advertised.
Am I falling behind or being less productive if I don't use AI?
NO. I'm completely confident that's not the case.
Here are my lessons:
- Only use AI when you understand how it works and how it can help you.
- Don't let AI dominate you and waste your time.
- Don't become dependent on AI, which can compromise the essence of research.
- Don't blindly trust AI, always verify its outputs.
- Don't deify AI! Trust in yourself.
AND
- The most important thing is develop and master your own skills. Use AI selectively as a supportive tool to optimize your workflow.
Thu Le - Lecturer
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