Large language models (e.g., ChatGPT) as research assistants

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2024-04-27 10:30:05

Software can beat human beings at most games… from Chess to Go, and even poker. Large language models like GPT-4 offered through services such as ChatGPT allow us to solve a new breed of problems. GPT-4 can beat 90% of human beings at the bar exam. Artificial intelligence can match math Olympians.

The primary skills of academics are language-related: synthesis, analogy, extrapolation, etc. Academics analyze the literature, identify gaps, and formulate research questions. They review and synthesize existing research. They write research papers, grant proposals, and reports. Being able to produce well-structured and grammatically correct prose is a vital skill for academics.

Unsurprisingly, software and artificial intelligence can help academics, and maybe replace them in some cases. Liang et al. found that an increasing number of research papers are written with tools like GPT-4 (up to 18% in some fields). It is quite certain that in the near future, a majority of all research papers will be written with the help of artificial intelligence. I suspect that they will be reviewed with artificial intelligence as well. We might soon face a closed loop where software writes papers while other software reviews it.

I suspect that much academic work will soon greatly benefit from artificial intelligence to the point where a few academics will be able to do the work that required an entire research institute in the past.