Skip to Main Content

Artificial Intelligence

Guide on artificial intelligence

A.I. Research Tools

AI Research Tools by Kristina Santiago

AI-enabled tools to support, enhance, and supplement research and learning.

How it works: Prompt Engineering

Prompt Engineering

Prompt engineering is the process of designing and refining prompts, instructions, or queries for natural language processing models, such as ChatGPT and Google Bard, in order to elicit specific and desired responses. The purpose of prompt engineering is to improve the model's ability to understand and generate human-like text by fine-tuning the input provided to the model by the user.

Effective prompt engineering can help control the model's output, make it more useful, and reduce the chances of generating irrelevant responses. It involves crafting prompts that are clear, precise, and contextually relevant to the task at hand, enabling the model to produce accurate and informative responses.

Resources to learn more about prompt engineering

Popular AI Tools

"ChatGPT...is a large language model-based chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched on November 30, 2022, which enables users to refine and steer a conversation towards a desired length, format, style, level of detail, and language. Successive prompts and replies, known as prompt engineering, are considered at each conversation stage as a context." (Wikipedia, Oct 10 2023)

The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/

ChatGPT's innovation and accessibility make it a popular tool for many users. Here are some pros and cons to consider as a student when you are using ChatGPT.  

Pros

Cons
  • Instant Assistance: ChatGPT provides quick and instant responses to prompts and is available 24/7.
  • Practice Writing: ChatGPT can be used for practicing writing essays, reports, or creative pieces, providing feedback and suggestions. It can also be used to help formulate outlines.
  • Language Learning: ChatGPT can assist in language learning by providing translations, explanations of grammar rules, and vocabulary assistance.
  • Brainstorming: ChatGPT can generate research ideas and help students brainstorm for their projects. It can be useful to brainstorm lists, scenarios, problem solving and strategies.
  • Personalization: Given enough specificity in prompting, ChatGPT's responses can be highly personalized to the questions and input asked.
  • Inaccuracy: ChatGPT may provide incorrect information at times, and may produce factually incorrect or fabricated information.
  • Plagiarism Risk: Over-reliance on ChatGPT can lead to unintentional plagiarism if students don't properly cite or paraphrase the generated content. ChatGPT may also provide direct material from external sources without disclosing the source.
  • Privacy Concerns: Using ChatGPT may involve sharing personal information and data, raising privacy concerns.
  • Ethical Considerations: Bias and responsible use of AI remain ethical considerations.
  • Lack of Depth/ Overgenalization: ChatGPT's responses may lack depth and nuanced understanding, and may not be suitable for highly specialized or technical subjects. 

 

"Google Bard is a conversational generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Google... It was developed as a direct response to the rise of OpenAI's ChatGPT, and was released in a limited capacity in March 2023." (Wikipedia, Oct 10 2023)

The URL for Google Bard is https://bard.google.com/

 

How Google Bard Works

A side-by-side comparison of Google Search versus Google Bard characteristics.

Google Search

Google Bard
  • URL: https://www.google.com/
  • Purpose: Find and provide information on the web from a wide array of online, searchable sources
     
  • Input: Keyword or phrase
  • Output: Links to websites, images, videos and other relevant results
  • Conversational Ability: Limited
  • Accuracy & Relevance: High
     
  • Up-to-dateness: Index is updated regularly
  • URL: https://bard.google.com/
  • Purpose: Generate text, translate languages, brainstorm & write different kinds of creative content, and answer questions in an open-ended way
  • Input: Text or code
  • Output: Text (charts, email, letters), code, scripts, musical pieces, etc. 
  • Conversational Ability: High
  • Accuracy & Relevance: Still under development, so results may vary
  • Up-to-dateness: Still under development, so knowledge may not be up-to-date

 

Discover various AI types shaping the future, beyond large language models.

Speechify.com 

  • Text-to-speech. Turn any written text into spoken words. For use on Chrome, iOS, Android, Mac & Edge.

Scholarcy.com

  • Cut down on your reading time and extract key information from research papers with Scholarcy's AI summarizer.