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Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can supplement the research and writing process in various ways, with their abilities to consume and summarize text in a matter of seconds, serve as a brainstorming or feedback partner, and generate detailed responses to questions. While these tools are powerful, they can also be misunderstood and misused, so it is important to use them conscientiously and understand their limitations. Read on to learn more about possibilities and limitations of AI tools for library research and academic writing purposes.
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The writer still needs to make the writing decisions, and an AI tool should not replace the work of reading, analyzing, researching, or writing; rather, it can supplement those tasks.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT or Microsoft CoPilot, get their information from training on a large language model (LLM). Essentially, the tool reads the content in the language model (such as millions of pages of websites and other texts) and then learns how to generate responses to prompts based on what it has read.
AI tools generate responses on patterns in training data but do not verify facts in real-time. Information may be outdated or incorrect.
AI tools cannot “understand” concepts like humans. They can’t analyze information critically, detect bias, or apply nuanced reasoning.
AI tools cannot search the internet in real-time unless specifically designed to do so. Rather, some rely on past training data, which may not include recent developments.
AI tools struggle with understanding long or complex content, meaning they may provide inconsistent or incomplete responses in extended discussions.
A generative AI tool may piece together a nonexistent source from its training material, building a new reference list entry out of various journal and article titles and other citation information.
If you choose to use an AI tool during the research process, consider the following:
Carefully fact check and critically evaluate AI tool outputs, remaining aware of the limitations of these tools.
Validate and explore any information sources produced by the AI tool. One option to validate sources is to search Google Scholar using the article’s title or other citation information. Review tips on Walden Library' s Google Scholar page.
Tools that support information searching are regularly integrating AI in new ways. Learn about some scholarly research tools with AI features in this recorded webinar presented by our Walden Library staff.
AI tools can be helpful in the writing process, such as for support with brainstorming, organizing and revising ideas, and proofreading. Using AI tools ethically for these purposes means that writers are not having the AI tool do the writing for them. Rather, the tools can support the writer’s own decision-making, much like bouncing ideas off a friend or classmate (brainstorming), using an organizational strategy like outlining or getting reader feedback (organizing and revising ideas), or using self-editing strategies or a spell-check tool (proofreading).
Explore these examples of using an AI tool ethically for writing support and writing skill development.
Keep in mind that the writer should still be making the writing decisions, and an AI tool should not replace the work of reading, analyzing, researching, or writing; rather, it can supplement those tasks.
If you use the output of an AI tool in your writing, it will be important to acknowledge the role of the AI tool in your writing in alignment with Walden’s Academic Integrity guidelines, the American Psychological Association (APA) citation guidelines, and the tool’s use guidelines.
Walden's Student Code of Conduct: Academic Integrity
The APA Style staff recommends that if you use an AI tool in your research and writing process, you should disclose and explain the use of that tool (McAdoo, 2023). Additionally, students should be aware that individual AI tools may have use guidelines.
In academic writing, we ensure clarity and transparency by citing and referencing when we use others’ ideas in our writing. Similarly, we should be clear and transparent when we use the output of an AI tool in our writing. As a Walden student, if you use an AI tool in the writing process, follow APA’s guidelines as well as the individual AI tool’s guidelines, as applicable, in describing and citing its use.
References
McAdoo, T. (2023, April 7). How to cite ChatGPT. APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt
We use and cite sources in our writing to establish and present authoritative and credible evidence for a position; because of that, citing the output of an AI tool in a Walden assignment may be rare, as AI tools are not scholarly or consistently credible sources.
Many generative AI tools create outputs that are only available to the user of the tool. As McAdoo (2023) noted in an APA Style Blog post, “Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is, therefore, more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation” (para. 4). This will similarly be the case with other generative AI tools (e.g., Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot).
When citing a generative AI tool, Walden students should also include an AI engagement reference in an appendix, providing transparency about the writer’s prompting and use of the tool.
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AI tools may store and process users’ input text or other user data. Because of this, avoid sharing personal or sensitive information with an AI tool.
Tips for keeping your information secure:
Before using a generative AI tool, research the tool’s data privacy policy. You can do this by viewing the privacy policy on the tool’s website or with an online search of “Data privacy [Name of AI tool]”.
Avoid sharing personal information with the tool, such as contact information, financial or banking information (e.g., bank account or credit card numbers), proprietary information, or other sensitive communication.
Consider using a paid subscription version of a generative AI tool instead of a free version. Paid versions of many generative AI tools tend to be more secure and less likely to share your data or use it for training the model.
Note that Walden’s Grammarly account is a paid subscription. Writing that is run through our institutional Grammarly account is not used to train Grammarly’s models or for product improvement.
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