Be clear about the guidelines for AI use at your institution, if unclear, seek clarification and permission
Aspect of study
Selecting what to read
Chatbot/AI has the capability to …
Summarise texts to a given amount of words.
This may be useful when you have a long reading list and have to make decisions about what to read and what to leave.
Your role as a student
- Select the works you want summarised
- Be precise in wording prompts about what you want the summary to focus upon – to increase the chance of that topic or theme being included in the summary
- Define the length, stating how long you want the summary to be – depending on how many you think you will need to work through
- Use follow-up prompts if themes you are interested in do not appear in the first response
- Use the summaries only as a guide, to help you select items to read. Remember that the summary might be incorrect or imbalanced for your needs, so don’t rely on the summary as your ‘reading’
Ensure you...
Do the reading. If you don’t understand a section, you could ask ChatGPT to explain. If you still don’t understand, you can continue to ask until you get it.
Repeated questioning for clarification can be useful, but you may reach a point where you're no longer able to get any more valuable or meaningful responses.
If you don’t read the text for yourself, you would need to cite ChatGPT as part of your ‘source’ when writing out your list of references. Reading the text yourself would be favoured by your tutors.
Do not undertake any actions that are illegitimate, even if asked to do so by ChatGPT, such as those which might breach copyright (see the example).
Do not copy or paste any part of the summary into your assignment.
Student prompt 1: for reading suggestions
I need a summary of Sprake et al (2018) Dietary patterns of university students in Nutr. Journal 17
I'm sorry, but I do not have access to external sources, including specific articles from journals like "Nutrition Journal." As a result, I cannot provide a summary of the specific article "Sprake et al (2018) Dietary patterns of university students in Nutr. Journal 17."
If you have access to the article, I recommend reading it and summarizing its key points, findings, and conclusions. If you provide me with the main points or key findings from the article, I'd be happy to help you craft a summary or incorporate those points into your essay.
Commentary
It is worth noting this response. As there are limits to what ChatGPT can access, AI systems can’t always suggest the best examples of sources that you need for assignments.
- An AI system might not have access to anything that is up-to-date and of value for academic work
- When AI recommends reading it doesn’t necessarily ‘know’ what will be most useful to a topic or needed for a good assignment – even if it seems that it does
Note the student follow-up question below – a useful one to ask.
What are your thoughts on the generated text?
- Are you aware of the kind of academic sources that ChatGPT has access to?
- Do you understand the reasons why ChatGPT (and other chatbots) have limits of what it can access?
Other tools
Note: Many students and academic researchers make use of another AI tool, Elicit, to access material beyond the paywall. That opens up access to a wider range of materials.
Check with your institution whether they have arrangements to use those materials – they may already pay for staff and students to use them.
Student prompt 2: follow-up
If I give you access, would that be a breach of copyright?
Yes, providing me with access to copyrighted material would likely be a breach of copyright. I don't have the ability to access external content, and even if I did, it's important to respect copyright restrictions and use sources appropriately.
If you have access to the article, I recommend reading it and summarizing the main points in your own words. If you'd like, you can provide me with the key points or findings from the article, and I can help you craft a summary or incorporate those points into your essay while adhering to proper citation practices.
Commentary
It is important to note this response from ChatGPT and compare it to the one above.
It can ask you to undertake actions which, if given another prompt, it’ knows’ it should not have done.
It is your responsibility to make sure you are not led into breaching copyright rules: you can’t blame ChatGPT. (You have to be more intelligent than it.)
Note that ChatGPT asks the student to supply it with just enough details or findings that it could build a summary from. In order to do this without copying material in (and breaching copyright), you would have to summarise it yourself anyway.
There are many AI tools you can use to summarise research articles such as:
- Elicit
- TLDR This
- Resoomer
Student prompt 3: follow-up
Is there any similar material you can summarise for me and provide me with the reference for?
I apologize for any misunderstanding, but I don't have access to specific external sources such as articles from "Nutrition Journal" or any other specific publications. My training only includes information up to September 2021*, and I don't have browsing capabilities to access current or specific articles.
However, if you can provide me with the main points or key findings from a similar source or topic that you'd like to include in your essay, I can certainly help you craft a summary or integrate those points into your essay while adhering to proper citation practices. Just let me know the key points you'd like to include, and I can assist you further.
*Limitation at the time of generating this example, AI companies are working on giving the tools access to ever more up-to-date sources.
Commentary
It is also important to note that, although ChatGPT has, in theory, access to material it was trained on up to a specific date (in this case, at the time the example was generated: 2021), it does not recognise that the journal article requested was published before 2021.
Don’t assume that ChatGPT or any AI tool will offer you the best or most suitable material available.
Student prompt 4
Can you give me a 100 word summary of Alice Walker’s The Colour Purple?
"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker is a novel that follows the life of Celie, an African American woman in the early 20th century. Through letters and diary entries, Celie narrates her struggles, including abuse, societal oppression, and personal growth. She forms a deep bond with Shug Avery, a singer, which evolves into a romantic relationship. The novel explores themes of resilience, female empowerment, and the search for identity. It delves into the complexities of race, gender, and family dynamics, ultimately showcasing Celie's transformation from a victim to a strong and self-assured woman who reclaims her voice and life's purpose.
Commentary
In this case, it might appear that ChatGPT has access to the text the student is interested in, as it provides a 100 word summary as asked.
However, either an AI tool has access to a source directly, or it might have assembled this summary from other summaries that exist in its training database / online (including wikis). This is worth noting in general, as it means the summary is formed from secondary data sources, which can further introduce inaccuracies and misrepresentation.
If you wanted to check whether this text might be useful to read, such as for an assignment about novels that address ‘societal oppression’ or ‘family dynamics’, the summary may be useful in terms of directing you to action. It suggests it is worth looking at this novel.
What is your overall opinion on the use of ChatGPT in this scenario?
Does this count as ‘my own work?’
Yes, if…
You receive a summary that is useful for you to take action on, it is ok to use that as an indicator of whether the original text is, or is not, worth reading. You take its guidance at your own risk: you might find it is not as useful as it seemed, or that it was indeed essential but that ChatGPT didn’t recognise the significance in its report back to you.
You factor in limitations of AI tools, for example they hallucinate, so there is a chance the summarised text is inaccurate and/or biased.
No, if …
- This goes against the regulations set out by your institution. Check whether such use of AI tools, like ChatGPT, is permitted by your course in work towards assessments
- You use the summary, or part of it, within your own work (an exception might be if you were requested by tutors to use extracts from AI tools within your work, such as for purposes of critique or to show examples of what it produced. You would then show clearly, referenced in your work what came from ChatGPT, so would not be claiming those sections as your own work)
Aspect of study
- Selecting what to read
- Be clear about the guidelines for AI use at your institution, if unclear, seek clarification and permission
Chatbot/AI has the capability to …
Summarise (some) texts to a given amount of words.
This can sometimes be useful when you have a long reading list and have to make decisions about what to read and what to leave.
Your role as a student
- Select the works you want summarised
- Be precise in wording prompts about what you want the summary to focus upon – to increase the chance of that topic or theme being included in the summary
- Define the length, stating how long you want the summary to be – depending on how many you think you will need to work through
- Use follow-up prompts if themes you are interested in do not appear in the first response
- Use the summaries only as a guide, to help you select items to read. Remember that the summary might be incorrect or imbalanced for your needs, so don’t rely on the summary as your ‘reading’
Ensure you...
Do the reading. If you don’t understand a section, you could ask ChatGPT to explain. If you still don’t understand, you can continue to ask until you get it.
Repeated questioning for clarification can be useful, but you may reach a point where you're no longer able to get any more valuable or meaningful responses.
If you don’t read the text for yourself, you would need to cite ChatGPT as part of your ‘source’ when writing out your list of references. Reading the text yourself would be favoured by your tutors.
Do not undertake any actions that are illegitimate, even if asked to do so by ChatGPT, such as those which might breach copyright (see the example).
Do not copy or paste any part of the summary into your assignment.
Student prompt 1: for reading suggestions
"I need a summary of Sprake et al (2018) Dietary patterns of university students in Nutr. Journal 17"
ChatGPT response 1
I'm sorry, but I do not have access to external sources, including specific articles from journals like "Nutrition Journal." As a result, I cannot provide a summary of the specific article "Sprake et al (2018) Dietary patterns of university students in Nutr. Journal 17."
If you have access to the article, I recommend reading it and summarizing its key points, findings, and conclusions. If you provide me with the main points or key findings from the article, I'd be happy to help you craft a summary or incorporate those points into your essay.
What are your thoughts on the generated text?
- Are you aware of the kind of academic sources that ChatGPT has access to?
- Do you understand the reasons why ChatGPT (and other chatbots) have limits of what it can access?
Commentary
It is worth noting this response. As there are limits to what ChatGPT can access, AI systems can’t always suggest the best examples of sources that you need for assignments.
- An AI system might not have access to anything that is up-to-date and of value for academic work
- When AI recommends reading it doesn’t necessarily ‘know’ what will be most useful to a topic or needed for a good assignment – even if it seems that it does
Note the student follow-up question below – a useful one to ask.
Other tools
Note: Many students and academic researchers make use of another AI tool, Elicit, to access material beyond the paywall. That opens up access to a wider range of materials. Check with your institution whether they have arrangements to use those materials – they may already pay for staff and students to use them.
Student prompt 2: follow-up
"If I give you access, would that be a breach of copyright?"
ChatGPT response 2
Yes, providing me with access to copyrighted material would likely be a breach of copyright. I don't have the ability to access external content, and even if I did, it's important to respect copyright restrictions and use sources appropriately.
If you have access to the article, I recommend reading it and summarizing the main points in your own words. If you'd like, you can provide me with the key points or findings from the article, and I can help you craft a summary or incorporate those points into your essay while adhering to proper citation practices.
Commentary
It is important to note this response from ChatGPT and compare it to the one above.
It can ask you to undertake actions which, if given another prompt, it’ knows’ it should not have done.
It is your responsibility to make sure you are not led into breaching copyright rules: you can’t blame ChatGPT. (You have to be more intelligent than it.)
Note that ChatGPT asks the student to supply it with just enough details or findings that it could build a summary from. In order to do this without copying material in (and breaching copyright), you would have to summarise it yourself anyway.
There are many AI tools you can use to summarise research articles such as:
- Elicit
- TLDR This
- Resoomer
Student prompt 3: follow-up
"Is there any similar material you can summarise for me and provide me with the reference for?"
ChatGPT response 3
I apologize for any misunderstanding, but I don't have access to specific external sources such as articles from "Nutrition Journal" or any other specific publications. My training only includes information up to September 2021*, and I don't have browsing capabilities to access current or specific articles.
However, if you can provide me with the main points or key findings from a similar source or topic that you'd like to include in your essay, I can certainly help you craft a summary or integrate those points into your essay while adhering to proper citation practices. Just let me know the key points you'd like to include, and I can assist you further.
*Limitation at the time of generating this example, AI companies are working on giving the tools access to ever more up-to-date sources.
What you think of this latest response?
Do you know the currency of the information that an AI tool is trained on and has access to?
Commentary
It is also important to note that, although ChatGPT has, in theory, access to material it was trained on up to a specific date (in this case, at the time the example was generated: 2021), it does not recognise that the journal article requested was published before 2021.
Don’t assume that ChatGPT or any AI tool will offer you the best or most suitable material available.
Student prompt 4
"Can you give me a 100 word summary of Alice Walker’s The Colour Purple?"
ChatGPT response 4
In this case, it might appear that ChatGPT has access to the text the student is interested in, as it provides a 100 word summary as asked.
However, either an AI tool has access to a source directly, or it might have assembled this summary from other summaries that exist in its training database / online (including wikis). This is worth noting in general, as it means the summary is formed from secondary data sources, which can further introduce inaccuracies and misrepresentation.
If you wanted to check whether this text might be useful to read, such as for an assignment about novels that address ‘societal oppression’ or ‘family dynamics’, the summary may be useful in terms of directing you to action. It suggests it is worth looking at this novel.
Commentary
Yes, if…
You receive a summary that is useful for you to take action on, it is ok to use that as an indicator of whether the original text is, or is not, worth reading. You take its guidance at your own risk: you might find it is not as useful as it seemed, or that it was indeed essential but that ChatGPT didn’t recognise the significance in its report back to you.
You factor in limitations of AI tools, for example they hallucinate, so there is a chance the summarised text is inaccurate and/or biased.
No, if …
- This goes against the regulations set out by your institution. Check whether such use of AI tools, like ChatGPT, is permitted by your course in work towards assessments
- You use the summary, or part of it, within your own work (an exception might be if you were requested by tutors to use extracts from AI tools within your work, such as for purposes of critique or to show examples of what it produced. You would then show clearly, referenced in your work what came from ChatGPT, so would not be claiming those sections as your own work)