Skip to sidebar after main content

AI Research Tools

What AI Research Tools Are Useful For

AI tools can help with the research process, including:

  • Brainstorming topics and research ideas
  • Developing and refining research questions
  • Generating search terms
  • Finding background information
  • Finding sources related to those you already have
  • Interpreting and visualizing data
  • Summarizing information

For examples of tools for these research processes, see Emerging AI Tools for Literature Review (Hong Kong University of Science & Technology).

Choosing an AI Tool

Some AI Research Tools

Questions to Ask

  • Who created the tool and why?
  • What does it do, and how does it do it?
  • What is the tool useful for, and what are its limitations?
  • How appropriate is the tool for your subject area? Many current tools are more useful for science than humanities.
  • What data does it use, and does it disclose its sources?
  • How accurate and reliable are the tool's results?
  • What happens to the content you input (privacy and data retention)? 

Limitations and Risks of Using AI Tools

  • Limited scope: AI search tools are based on web resources that are openly accessible, and generally exclude content with a paid subscription (most scholarly articles and journals). AI search tools should be used as a supplement to Library search tools.
  • Inaccurate results: results vary in quality and accuracy. AI tools are known for hallucinating or making up results and citations, and for providing outdated or inaccurate information. Always verify results.
  • Lack of transparency: tool creators and providers do not always disclose where their data comes from, what assumptions the tool makes, how the tool works, or their policies on privacy and use of your personal data.
  • Biases: AI training data contains language, cultural, and other biases. Be aware of possible gaps and biases in your results.
  • Privacy: information you input or upload may not be private, and may be used by the tool creators for their commercial purposes.
  • Copyright: there are potential copyright issues with AI output, and with uploading articles or other materials that you do not own the copyright for.
  • Academic integrity: not all uses of AI tools comply with academic integrity policies. Make sure to follow these policies and acknowledge any use of AI tools in your research process. 

Using AI in Assignments

Citing & Acknowledging AI

Citing

Acknowledging

  • Acknowledge any use of AI as part of your process.
    • Example: We acknowledge that ChatGPT 4.0 was used to provide input on the structure and outline of this page.
  • For acknowledgement examples, see Laurier's Generative AI Guidelines. 

Other Resources 

Page Owner: Joanne Oud

Page Feedback

Last Updated: