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Information & Research Literacy - A self-guided Program

This is currently a work in progress (summer 2025) to provide the HKUST community with self-drected learning on many aspects of information and research literacy

AI Tools for Academic Research - Why use them?

Why use a tool?

Because it helps you do something you want to do that you can't do by yourself

Example: I cannot chop down a tree with my bare hands.  I need an ax, a saw, or a chainsaw.

Because it helps you do something faster, better, or more elegantly than you can do without the tool.

Example: I can dig a hole with my bare hands, but a shovel or a jack hammer or a bulldozer or an explosive like TNT can help me do it better: faster, to more specific specifications, etc.

Example, I can peel an orange with my hands. Using an ax or chainsaw would be counter-productive.

 

AI tools for research are like that.  Be careful that you are using the right tool for the right purpose.

Read: Challenging The Myths of Generative AI  (2024)

Ask yourself - do I use some AI tools because I believe some of these myths? Or do I use some AI tools because I have a specific purpose in mind, and the tool can help me do it?

 

Then, examine the table below and consider which tools may be useful to you for which purposes.

New Technolgy: Q&A

Simple Answers to the Questions that Get Asked about Each New Technology

XKCD 1289:  cc-by-nc 2.5

People often react very strongly to new technologies. It will "change everything". It will make paradise-on-earth. It will make hell-on-earth.  The comic below share a view about new technologies that can be applied to things from (say)  automobiles to the development of mobile phones.  The  comic suggests taking a more measured stance.

Self-query: How much of this do you think is true, and how much of it do you think is just silly nonsense? Why?

The Simple Answers to the questions that get asked about every new technologys: Will [blank] make us all genisues: No. Will [blank] make us all morons: No. Will [blank] destroy whole industries: yes; Will [bnal] make us more empathetic: no; Will [blank] make us more caring: no; will teens use [blank] for sex: yes; were they going to have sex anyway: yes; will [blank] destroy music: no; will [blank] destroy art: no; but can't we go back to a time when: no; will [blank] bring about world peace: no; will [blank] cause widesperead alientaion by creating a world of empty experiences: we were already alienated

Primo Research Assistant in HKUST's PowerSearch

Primo Research Assistant is a GenAI tool that searches across HKUST Library's PowerSearch .

Current functions:

  • Semantic search & Natural language queries
  • Brief answers to questions + references based on the abstracts of top 5 results
  • Links to a longer results list

Note:

  • You must be signed in to MyAccount to use it
  • It may return results that need interlibrary loan
  • Some library material NOT searched & includes:
    • APA
    • Elsevier
    • JSTOR
    • Taylor & Francis
    • Conde Nast publications

Details from vendor:

Compare GenAI Tools for Research

Comparison of GenAI Tools

(updated 26 Jul 2024)

Update log:

  • 26 Jul 2024 - Elicit removed 5000 credit limit - Basic Plan now unlimited to everyone
  • 3 Jul 2024 - Elicit added Advanced Search (search by journal, author, DOI, OA status, citation count, etc.)
  • 26 Jun 2024 - GPTs (e.g. Dimensions GPT, Consensus GPT, SciSpace GPT) are free to all ChatGPT users now)
LibGuide content by HKUST Library is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, unless otherwise noted.