AI tools: Tread carefully
Although it has been some time since the advent of artificial intelligence, the interest in AI tools seems to be growing stronger by the day. Therefore, the AWC continues exploring the topic of AI tools and their application in research writing.
This time the format we chose was that of a one-day face-to-face course. During the day, participants had an opportunity to use a selection of AI-powered tools to search for academic literature for their papers, to read academic articles, to co-write with AI tools, and to revise their written work. The course activities generated a host of constructive discussions about the purposes, quality, and ethical aspects of using AI tools for writing academic papers. Although many participants found the tools useful for their future work, some colleagues were skeptical since AI-powered tools did not meet their expectations. Most of the participants agreed that human-generated texts were more rich, creative, and original than grammatically correct yet superficial AI-generated writing.
The important takeaway is: AI-powered research, reading, and co-writing tools could be helpful in the academic writing process, yet generated ideas and texts should be vetted and developed in-depth by human experts.
We would like to thank the trainer Diana Akhmedjanova for her expert advice and the participants for their positive feedback:
- "I am very grateful to the trainer for a very capacious, informative course. We would never have found so many useful AI tools ourselves and never have used all their capabilities! Diana also presents all the material with amazing artistry; it is very pleasant to listen to her. And it’s great that the course was held offline; if something didn’t work out, students had the opportunity to immediately clarify with Diana what they were technically doing wrong. This made working on your own article much easier.”
- "It was the most useful course I have taken recently. It was built perfectly, in my opinion. There was a theoretical part; we applied new knowledge straightaway; we were able to compare the tools; we reflected; we discussed all the pluses and minuses of the tools. And the most valuable thing was that by the end of the course, we'd had pdf texts of articles for our research, their summaries, citations, and references. I do appreciate Diana's job. The course is outstanding."
- “I really enjoyed the course. I gained the practical knowledge I need and received support from the trainer. It's so valuable to find useful AI instruments that really work in the endless quantity of AI tools that are so hard to understand. I sincerely thank the Academic Writing Center for your work!”
The AWC encourages you to try your hand at using various AI-powered tools, gain experience, and share it with your community.
The courses will continue at the AWC next year. Don’t forget to browse our website at the end of December to choose programs that will help you reach your goals.