How do you use ChatGPT?

[foolsonyou]

I've been using ChatGPT to edit internal documents, proposals, meeting minutes etc for a while now.

Has anyone use it for academic writing? I've played around with sticking in half written abandoned papers but I honestly cant tell if what it spits out is actually good.

I'm not sure about the ethics (isnt it like a spell checker) and how detectable is it? If I use it to proof read is that going to set off AI detection at journals?

How do you use it at work?

I don’t put any of my own writing in it as it then has rights to use it any way it wants.

Do you ever feed it your ideas to play around with?

Perplexity is good to get a lit review going and my uni had an agreement with copilot that all inputs were private and could not be used for AI training. AI is super useful for the plain language abstract.

Students should be wary of using for academic submissions, uni’s are really clamping down on AI generated content and have upgraded their detection software. Unfortunately you can’t take all of ChatGPT’s output as gospel, you need to fact check or you’ll end up with a paper that’s nonsensical and 40% bs. I’ve had it reference studies and papers that I can find no trace of and may not exist.

I do however use it to draft layout and structure (currently using it to plan the outline of a PowerPoint presentation for example) also to proof read. I use Genie’s ‘Ask PDF’ feature to pull relevant info from documents and summarise without reading the whole thing.

Does your University not have a policy about the use of AI by staff? We have been told specifically which AI assistant we can use (not ChatGPT) and in which circumstances. I wouldn’t upload my own original content or any university information (minutes, report, etc) to ChatGPT.

i use it to draft polite emails, SOPs, terms of references, guidance docs, instructions to students on how to submit assignments, understand the assignment. I also use it to synthesise rough feedback into actionable, nicer feedback (e.g. feedback on presentations).

grant wise, i debate with it on ideas, and ask it if my ideas are shit, and why. It s very polite so it prefers flattery.

i ve also asked it to help me rebutte a nasty review (it agreed that rev 2 was a mean reviewer who failed to see gold in our paper)

and i ve used it as a coach - exploring next steps, next moves, worklife balance, and dilemna with my students (e.g. resolving conflict)

Sometimes when I'm above the word count, I've already cut words but I cannot find ways to be even more concise, I run the text past ChatGPT and it usually comes up with good suggestions to shorten. Not something I've used or would use for a full grant proposal or article, but rather with less 'sensitive' documents, such as a conference abstract, some internal things, etc.
I've also used it as a sort of "coach" like Marasme suggests, this is actually something that a post-doc in my department suggested and I was very skeptic, but it often comes up with interesting things - my theory is that it allows you to split yourself into two so to speak so it's like bouncing ideas back and forth with yourself but more quickly/streamlined.
And as absolute mischief, on a few occasions I have used it to draft replies to colleagues when I absolutely couldn't be bothered (I am head of a department populated by arrogant men more senior than I). I think that for these kinds of things ChatGPT's polite but detached and ultimately bullshitty tone works a charm, and I tell myself that, after being subjected to the umpteenth instance of shameless mansplaining, deciding that you're not even going to bother thinking out a reply and instead outsourcing your thinking to a machine can be a quiet form of rebellion.

What have you been told to use? And can it be used for academic publications?

I try using it as a coach then, thanks for that! I also use it to answer emails, but mostly when I'm intimidated by people senior to me and can easily spend 3 days editing an email that really doesnt matter.

I love the idea of using it to tell me when my ideas are crap! Thanks for the tip

Maybe this is a stupid question, but how do people get exposed to the different types of AI? I had never heard of Perplexity and Genie that were mentioned here (thank you for the info!)

I search for TikTok videos on AI and get ideas for different ones to look at. I like copilot and my institution has an agreement that stuff stays private. I use it to help me think of scenarios and activities for seminar group work. To write fun quizzes for the students.

I also use it to show the students how to use it to critically analyse research.

I’m obviously a dinosaur and have never used ChatGBT, nor anything similar. I’m not sure where to begin!

Just open it up and start asking stuff.

I use it to produce rough lecture outlines and suggest short interactive activities which the students can do in the lecture hall. I then expand on the sections and make the slides etc myself, but it is so useful for doing the initial “here is what you need to cover” bit. And the activities it suggests are usually pretty good.

See, I don’t understand how this works. What do you need to put in it (wording wise) to get this?

“I am giving an hour lecture to a group of undergraduates who are on degree programme X. The lecture theme is Y. What topics should I cover in this lecture? And can you suggest some short interactive activities which the students can do during the lecture which help them consolidate their learning?”

I have experimented with it a bit.

It's fantastic for a scheduling. Student presentations between X and X time, with 5 mins buffer and a break at x time.

Writing modules documents when I have to enter module dates. It's great for working it all out. Give me the dates of every Tuesday from xx until xmas.

Learning outcomes when writing modules...gives an interesting start.

Used it in prezi to give a start for a lecture but didn't like it though undoubtedly saved time when I was hard pressed. I deleted lots of it though. It was very repetitive and not the best layout.

These are baby steps though.

I don't think it's good for academic writing, because as you said, its job on finishing half-written texts is unimpressive (I've tred doing this as well). I mostly just ask for various ways to create visual content related to my writing, because I lack imagination 😂with that and Smartshow 3d in hand I do slideshow type presentations.

The only thing I might use it for is making a short doc more concise. As an experiment I fed it a few interview transcripts yesterday and told it to perform a thematic analysis.

It was shit.

Well the first thing you should do is find out your organisation's policy on which AI tools you should use.

NEVER put company information into ChatGP or other free to use chat bots - you're giving it information with no obligation for them to keep it private. It's not like using Word or whatever, where you have a licence and would never expect Microsoft to snoop on the content of your documents.

Some universities have a licence for Microsoft Co-Pilot, which can be used without worrying that MS will use the content for something else.

I use it primarily to rewrite sentences for assignments, as I have a tendency to write overlong descriptions. It shortens them and makes my vocabulary tighter. I also used it the other day to ask why I was so avoidant to starting a particular piece of work and it came back with a number of reasons, one I strongly identified with. It then offered me a framework to get started which I used.

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/chatgpt-data-centre-water-consumption-b2318972.html?utm_campaign=fullarticle&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=inshorts
HTH

i struggle with their use of "comsume" in the context of electricity generation (not negating that their s a use of water involved) but not the greatest articulation of this particular argument

Yes I do tend to use copilot rather than chatgpt but when I said “ask it questions” that’s literally what I meant, so no inputting of sensitive data.

Saying that there is a box you can tick on ChatGPT saying what you input isn’t to be used/stored by them and they won’t use it. I’ve been on numerous AI sessions at work and they said ChatGPT is fine to use with work information as long as you tick that box.

I’ve never bothered with the box as the only thing I use ChatGPT for vs copilot is writing scenarios for group activities. Copilot often refuses to write scenarios on topics I want it to. The guy in the AI training said it’s because copilot has a stronger moral compass and doesn’t like my topics, ChatGPT doesn’t care 😁