AI For Idea Refinement

Overview

Using AI to refine ideas and explore topics can be a potential way to proceed in your your writing process, especially if you're not quite sure where to go after brainstorming an initial topic idea. Certain AI platforms can now provide you with source information, including clickable links and summaries of information. However, while AI can be useful in exploring general ideas, it becomes less useful as the topic becomes more nuanced and specific. It's always best practice to verify sources and information and make sure that you cross-check material to ensure that it is accurate. This section will cover some strategies and models of how students can use AI for idea refinement, while also covering the concerns that arise when doing so.

While the AI Writer Toolbox can help you learn more about applications of AI in writing, it's important to remember that faculty will have different policies about the use of AI in the classroom. If you are ever in doubt about acceptable applications of AI tools in a specific class, the best thing to do is ask your instructor.

Prompt Engineering for Refining Ideas

While AI should not be the only tool you use in your idea exploration process, it can help you get furhter acquainted with your topic and begin your search for sources. See the prompts below for some examples of what kinds of questions you can ask a chatbot to get a better sense of a topic.

Start With an Initial Idea

Suppose you have picked a topic for a research paper (e.g., socioeconomic inequality in South Africa) for one of your classes. It's not a topic you've read much about or are familiar with, and you're not sure where to go from there. In this case, you could use generative AI as a place to find a general explanation of the topic, using the following prompt:

Explain socioeconomic inequality in South Africa to me as if I am in 10th grade.

As you can see in the sample output on the left, the topic has been simplified and broken up into topic clusters, such as "Historical Background," "Present-Day Inequities," "Economic Inequality," "Social Inequality," "Efforts to Address Inequity," and Conclusion.

This can narrow down what angle or perspective you want to tackle this topic from by giving you key words and names you can use to begin a search for peer-reviewed articles and sources in a library database, for example.

AI hallucinations

The Conversation: What are AI hallucinations? Why AIs sometimes make things up

What are AI hallucinations? Why AIs sometimes make things upWhen AI systems try to bridge gaps in their training data, the results can be wildly off the mark: fabrications and non sequiturs researchers call hallucinations.

AI hallucinations remain one of the biggest weaknesses of generative AI platforms. An AI hallucination occurs when an AI chatbot, such as ChatGPT, produces an answer that contains either counterfactual or made-up information. Hallucinations can be difficult to identify if you don't already have underlying knowledge of the topic. The chatbot delivers answers with such confidence that it can be hard to tell what's real and what isn't, especially when you are using AI to learn more about a particular subject--which is why it's always necessary to cross-check information with a trusted source.

ADDITIONAL Resources

Blog Post: AI For Research

AI for Research

While AI may not be your best option for research, it can certainly help you organize your sources and get introductory information about your topic. Learn about different platforms and research strategies in this blog post.

Blog Post: Lateral Reading

How to Check for Misinformation: Lateral Reading

It's often advised to double-check your sources when using an AI platform to help with your research process. Lateral reading is one effective way to go about it, as detailed in this blog post.

SJSU Library Research Tutorials

Learn more about how find sources and cite them with the MLK Library's tutorials, at this link.

Library Database Search Stragegies

Ethical Considerations & Academic Integrity

It's essential to remember that in order to effectively use AI for idea refinement, you need some kind of basic knowledge about your topic. AI is trained on the data of the internet, which includes both commentators that have valuable input and those that do not; therefore, it should not be used in lieu of critical thinking and/or research processes. You must always think critically about what information an AI chatbot provides you with since AI will not do that for you. Always double check information obtained from AI platforms using other sources that are peer-reviewed or reputable. If you are ever in doubt about acceptable applications of AI tools in a specific class, the best thing to do is ask your instructor.

See the AI Ethics page to learn more about the ethical implications of using AI.

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