I believe that my use of AI in my life will increase overall after taking this course, though I believe the uses will be very nuanced. The uses we had learned to use AI in class has the opportunity to become very reliable. This may not be the case currently as a lot of training has to be done for LLM’s to become free of hallucinations. In most cases it seems like if you need to fact check an AI’s response, which you should be anyway, it would be easier to confirm the research on your own.
As to how I would use, or not use, this in the future, AI will not be used for summarizing literature I have not read yet. I do not have enough confidence in a summarized piece of work done by AI to incorporate every key point in the text. I think AI could be useful summarizing writing that you have a decent understanding of already. This would serve as a quick way to remind yourself on something that may have been forgotten. Another simple use for AI is to help get ideas on how to organize drafts and or create other lists. These simple tasks would serve as a way to start something that would otherwise longer to do without AI.
These are very good points! I am also very careful with using AI for summarizing myself, I actually rarely do this. I think that drafting and organization is one of the best things to come out of artificial intelligence (academically) and specifically for writing purposes in academia. I think it is generally reliable and very helpful, I have also learned a lot of techniques and produced quality drafts with organizational help and ideas on placement, headings, how to frame an abstract, etc.
AI is really bad at summarizing literature, because it may not read it at all or cannot load more pages (unless you give it instructions word by word). I agree that AI is very useful in outlining and can help you generate what to write in each section.
I agree that AI is currently best used for very simple tasks that we would not really benefit from if done ourselves.
Hi,
I absolutely agree with you that, currently, LLMs do not always help to increase efficiency, as, oftentimes, simply doing the work yourself takes the same or even less amount of time than having an AI do it and then fact-checking it afterward.
I agree that this course has changed my perspective on AI as well as helped me understand it better. While the AI tools we explored have the potential to be highly reliable, we should still check the information they provide carefully to avoid mistakes. However, in general, AI also has certain benefits for daily tasks or school actions (summarizing, personalized tutoring, etc.).
You make a great point about using AI for things you already understand. I think it’s a smart way to avoid misinformation while still getting help with organizing or jumpstarting ideas. I like your cautious but practical approach.