Continuing our mini-theme on artificial intelligence, Alex Fenlon, Head of Copyright and Licensing in Library Services, addresses some of the concerns around these new and emerging tools in this in depth post. He highlights some of the issues that users need to be aware of when trialling these new tools in research.
New AI tools, including those mentioned in our previous post on this topic, are an exciting new development in research and present us with some fantastic opportunities. However, there are a few caveats which researchers need to be aware of before AI tools are included as a central part of a researchers’ toolkit.
Reproducibility
Reproducibility, replicability, stability, validity, and consistency of results are a key part of research across all disciplines. Researchers must be able to repeat their research to ensure their results are valid and stand up to the scrutiny and rigour that peer review requires. Anything that leads to an inability to repeat a method or replicate results will undermine any findings and outcomes.
The use of some AI tools in research today raises precisely these concerns: whether the consistency of results will be maintained over time and whether identical inputs will lead to identical outputs. If you ask a question today, will you get the same result tomorrow, next week, in a couple of years time, or when you’re thinking about publishing your research?
AI tools are developing at a rapid pace, with enhancements to functionality and quality being released at breath-taking speed. Researchers will need to ensure that the precise version of a tool used is communicated and potentially remains available for interrogation as research progresses. Along with these enhancements, some tools learn and evolve over time and this too will potentially impact on the reproducibility of research. This shifting and uncertainty in responses could have significant impact, and it’s key that researchers do not forget their literacy skills and become overly reliant on these tools.
Continue reading “AI: what are the risks?”