AI Has a Credibility Problem

I’ve had coaching clients ask me about using AI to do scientific research, so I was excited when I read about OpenAI’s new “Deep Research” feature in the New York Times. 

“It can do complex research tasks that might take a person anywhere from 30 minutes to 30 days,” Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s chief product officer, said at the event in Washington. By contrast, Deep Research can accomplish such tasks in five to 30 minutes, depending on the complexity.”

But there’s a but. Of course there’s a but. With Artificial Intelligence, there’s always a but.

Beware AI hallucinations!

“But A.I. technologies like this can still get things wrong or even make up information — a phenomenon that A.I. researchers call hallucination. This may mean that it provides incorrect citations.

OpenAI said that the tool might struggle to distinguish authoritative information from rumors and that it often failed to accurately convey when it was uncertain about the information it was delivering.”

Ummm…. Yeah. So if you’re doing heavy duty research for your book, if you’re an academic or citing medical information, I’d be wary of AI Deep Search for now.

Back to the card catalogues we go! (Just kidding…)

Aloha,

MeiMei

Tip of the Week: Do Your Primary Research

Whether you’re writing a health guidebook, how-to, or an academic book for a popular audience, you will need research to back up your claims. It’s wonderful to have access to all those thousands of previously published peer-reviewed scientific papers. 

Kiran and I are so lucky that we have free access to JSTOR, the ultimate online collection of papers, via my brother Derek and his wife Erica, who are tenured professors at Penn State University. You might be able to gain free access via your school, college alumni association or public library account.

It is so worthwhile to go to the primary sources when you can. You get to read about how studies were conducted, and lay eyes on the results yourself. Far more trustworthy than any Google synopsis or hallucinatory AI.

And, like a treasure hunt, it can be great fun!

Quote of the Week

We may now be finding that the AI “ghost in the machine” that we all should fear is not sentience, but simple hallucination. 

Shomit Ghose, UC Berkeley Publication 5.2.24