It was Clifford Allbutt who said, “The use of thesis-writing is to train the mind or to prove that the mind has been trained.” Allbutt died more than a hundred years ago (1925) before digital technology found its roots, but his message was clear, and thesis writing has become one of the integral parts of a degree program. The task typically entails making claims about a topic that aligns with the student’s course of study. The execution principle revolves around a sensible argument, and in response, “CREDIBLE” research will be conducted to get findings. Thus, the purpose of conducting academic research is to fill a gap that has been left unanswered, prove the students’ persistence in their studies, and aid them in mastering their research skills.
Benefits of ChatGPT
Academic writing, like any other venture, embraces innovation quickly. For instance, ChaptGPT (generative pre-trained transformer) is an exciting tech development with enormous possibilities and has become a new trend in today’s semi-digital world. While some people use it for learning purposes to make their jobs easier, other parties misapply it by engineering plagiarised content, copying and pasting it without editing, and then claiming intellectual ownership, which threatens originality. Dergaa et al. (2023) opined that ChatGPT is an effective instrument for academic research because of its multiple benefits. One of its key characteristics is its capacity to quickly handle large amounts of textual data, saving researchers time and effort.
Artificial intelligence (Al) has significantly impacted various aspects of life, including face recognition, text autocorrect, personalized ads, and advanced medical imaging (Honavar & Santosh, 2023). They also added that recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have made ChatGPT a promising tool for authors to use when conducting research and composing an essay. Nonetheless, there are doubts about ChatGPT’s dependability and possible hazards related to using it.
Al is commonly used by students for school tasks due to its widespread recognition. An Ngo, (2023) carried out a survey using a sample size of 200 students and found that students were well aware of ChatGPT’s benefits when it comes to using it for learning. According to the students, using ChatGPT in the classroom was a fantastic chance that offered them a lot of advantages. Students report that ChatGPT enhances learning and retention, saves time, and provides valuable information and personalized feedback.
Limitations and Concerns
Nonetheless, it is unethical for students to use AI for in-depth scholarly research and writing. The thesis research is unlike normal article writing, with information readily and easily accessible on Google. Rather, it is a meticulous investigation that demands establishing facts and reaching a strong conclusion. Certainly, chatGPT or any other text-generation intelligence can be used to refine ideas and concepts.
When it comes to research, “originality” comes before anything else, yet many students utilise ChatGPT from the ideation of their topic up until the end of their writing. The research question of their work is AI-generated, which is the first step in altering the originality of their essays. Their conclusion and suggestions for further studies are all AI-generated. Some of their references are also AI-generated, which might not be accurate.
An Ngo (2023) finds that ChatGPT often produces erroneous or inaccurate factual references and unreliable material on subjects with few citations.
Also, another noticeable thing when it comes to AI is that it gives answers based on how it accumulates a question or message. It was created in such a way that it has limitations; only some things can be found there, and people cannot rely on it. Understanding language patterns is its primary strength, so you cannot rely on it to analyse bulky written scholarly texts. ChatGPT requires a prompt to generate accurate answers. Therefore, researchers must be skilled at crafting effective prompts and instructions for ChatGPT.
Originality and Credibility
The other main purpose of thesis research is to create new knowledge. How can new knowledge be created when the research questions, literature reviews, and references are all generated from ChatGPT? Again, originality and credibility are two essential components of good and solid research. Moreover, ChatGPT’s training data is based on existing information, which may be outdated or limited, further compromising the novelty and accuracy of the research. Many researchers have discovered chatGPT results to be often inaccurate, particularly concerning citation.
The Empirical reviews involve analyzing past studies to identify research gaps. It’s one of the most important parts of thesis research, where other existing works are analysed to find answers for the current study.
The literature review section of the thesis must be original. After all, it comes up with many citations, thus making it unethical for a person to use chatGPT to come up with this part of the research due to the risk of improper information misattribution. Mondal & Mondal (2023) stated that a “literature review is never complete without citing the source of the text. However, generating references from a language model is risky as it often provides fictitious references.”
Dergaa et al. (2023) affirm that using ChatGPT in research may introduce erroneous or biased material into publications, resulting in unintentional plagiarism or misattribution of notions. Furthermore, researchers who use LLMs such as ChatGPT risk failing to cite sources or authors, resulting in information misattribution.
According to research done by Bhattacharyya et al. (2023), where they examined the authenticity of 115 generated medical content references from chatGPT, the result stated that “47% were fabricated, 46% were authentic but inaccurate, and only 7% were authentic and accurate.”
In an attempt to validate the above research, ChatGPT was assigned to generate past studies by other researchers that relate to the topic “Accountability journalism in today’s society,” and it gave out five research works, some of which are accurate while others are not completely accurate, and the names of the authors or universities they were linked to are incorrect. Thus, this result shows that ChatGPT provides ideas or titles of previous research for you to conduct an in-depth search and identify your research gap. It also demonstrates that you must compel ChatGPT to generate a detailed synopsis of the article, which will result in an imprecise citation because of its limitations.
Analysis, an integral part of research, requires human intuition and expertise, which ChatGPT lacks. ChatGPT can perform basic analysis, but it cannot handle in-depth and statistical analysis because it struggles with nuance and cannot create visualisations, such as graphs and charts.
However, as Al evolves, it becomes more effective. Versions like the new ChatGPT 4.0 understand nuances, do complex analyses, and even create graphs and charts. This will help a researcher focus on big-picture thinking and important decisions.
Alternative Tools and Future Directions
Moreover, along with ChatGPT, artificial intelligence has other tools that can aid researchers and students with their academic research. For instance, Jenni.ai is one of the tools that makes research easier. It is an effective tool that assists you with writing, referencing, and editing essays, research papers, and other academic writing. Research Rabbit, Connected Papers, Claude, Scite, R Discovery, Semantic Scholar, and Samwell are all tools readily available for students to utilise for their academic writing.
Therefore, while ChatGPT can be a useful tool for generating ideas and editing writing, it is essential to use it judiciously and not rely solely on it for research and writing. A warning label on ChatGPT 3.5 says, “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Consider checking important information.” Thus, it cannot be dependable. Students can use it to generate ideas and edit their writing, but not in a way that changes the whole concept of their work or compromises its originality, credibility, and authenticity.
REFERENCES
Dergaa, I., Chamari, K., Zmijewski, P., & Ben Saad, H. (2023). From human writing to artificial intelligence generated text: Examining the prospects and potential threats of ChatGPT in academic writing. Biology of Sport, 40(2), 615-622. https://doi.org/10.5114/biolsport.2023.125623
Honavar, S. G. (2023). Eye of the AI storm: Exploring the impact of AI tools in ophthalmology. Indian Journal of Ophthalmology, 71(6), 2328-2340. https://doi.org/10.4103/IJO.IJO_1478_23
Khalifa, M., & Albadawy, M. (2023). Using artificial intelligence in academic writing and research: An essential productivity tool. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine Update, 5, 100145. https://doi.org/10.1016 j.cmpbup.2024.100145
Lingard, L. (2023). Writing with ChatGPT: An illustration of its capacity, limitations, and implications for academic writers. Perspectives on Medical Education, 12(1), 261-270. https://doi.org/10.5334/pme.1072
Mondal, H., & Mondal, S. (2023). ChatGPT in academic writing: Maximizing its benefits and minimizing the risks. Indian Journal of Ophthalmology, 71(12), 3600-3606. https://doi.org/10.4103/IJO.IJO_718_23
Thorp, H. H. (2023). ChatGPT is fun, but not an author. Science, 379(6630), 313.
The Perception by University Students of the Use of ChatGPT in Education – ProQuest
“Artificial Intelligence will have a more profound impact on humanity than fire, electricity, and the internet.” – Sundar Pichai
