Nearly a year after the release of ChatGPT, the attitudes of major universities have also changed dramatically. The world's top universities such as Oxbridge, which issued a ban on ChatGPT in March this year, have also recently lifted the ban on ChatGPT and issued guidelines for the use of generative artificial intelligence.
ChatGPT can liberate the labor of scientific researchers to a certain extent. Instead of directly prohibiting it, it is better to teach everyone to use this tool more compliantly.
Source: Internet
Recently, the author needed to write a paper for a new job, so he discovered some new functions and advantages of ChatGPT in assisting in writing papers.
Today, the author will give you a detailed introduction to how ChatGPT helps me write papers more efficiently and the precautions for using ChatGPT to assist in writing papers .
Note: This article discusses how to use ChatGPT to assist in writing papers. Using ChatGPT to write papers directly is considered academic fraud . This article firmly resists academic fraud.
1. In what ways can ChatGPT assist in writing papers?
0 1.ChatGPT helps reading documents
I believe that when many friends first read English literature, they would encounter the situation that they could not understand it after reading for a long time or forget it after reading it. Before ChatGPT, some excellent document translation software emerged, which can translate PDF files in real time after importing them.
However, this type of software cannot accurately translate the content of the document in most cases, and some words cause confusion in grammar and wording after being translated into Chinese , making students even more confused after reading.
In addition, some of the previous excellent translation software have been removed from the shelves, and some have also changed from open source to membership systems, which has caused certain difficulties for some academic novices when using them.
When writing this paper, the author also deliberately used a document as an example, tried to use ChatGPT to translate it, and extracted the main meaning of the paragraph for me. The author found that ChatGPT has a relatively powerful function in this aspect.
The picture below is a paragraph of text that the author copied from a certain document, and asked ChatGPT to translate and summarize the content of the paragraph for me. By comparing the original English text, the author found that ChatGPT very accurately translated the original English text for me in academic language , and tried to use vernacular so that I could understand the content as much as possible.
The author’s question to ChatGPT
Source: Author
ChatGPT’s answer to the author
Source: Author
Some papers are in PDF format, so there may be many line breaks. At this time, if you use ordinary translation software, you need to manually delete the blank lines before the translation can be accurate. ChatGPT can directly provide users with the final translation version and interpretation without deleting blank lines , which is very powerful.
0 2.ChatGPT helps organize ideas
In the process of scientific research, we always have some fantastic ideas after reading a large amount of literature. However, many times it is difficult to straighten out the logic and turn it into a feasible idea. This is also an aspect that troubles the author.
Therefore, when writing this paper, the author tried to use ChatGPT to help clarify my ideas, as shown in the figure below.
The questions raised by the author correspond to the answers to ChatGPT
Source: Author
The author randomly thought of two kinds of data in his own research field, and asked ChatGPT whether it could use these two kinds of data to solve some scientific and practical problems (this problem has been explored by previous people and is only used to test ChatGPT). Obviously ChatGPT He understood my problem very well and gave me some solutions.
This solution happens to be a very important step in getting this done. Finally, ChatGPT also asked me some questions to help me better think about the scientific significance of the project.
Although this question was randomly raised by the author to test the performance of ChatGPT, ChatGPT still gave a very reasonable answer. The author did not use too many samples to try to complete this work. This just provides everyone with an idea to help everyone better complete papers and projects.
0 3.ChatGPT help code
Handling code issues has always been ChatGPT's strength . Before there was ChatGPT, the author also checked CSDN, GitHub and other websites to slowly debug and make the code run smoothly. But with ChatGPT, everything seems to have become simpler.
Many times, the author only needs to enter the goal he wants to achieve, and ChatGPT will provide a sample code. The picture below is an example of the author asking ChatGPT about the classic time series analysis method Mann-Kendall test .
The author asked ChatGPT about the code to implement the function
Source: Author
It is not difficult to find that ChatGPT also completed this task excellently, simplified the task, and directly provided the author with an unofficial MATLAB toolbox , which greatly improved work efficiency.
Not only that, ChatGPT can debug your code , or improve code running efficiency , improve code cleanliness, etc. It can be said that the role of ChatGPT in coding is the most shocking to me at present, and it is also the most commonly used function.
The author needs to remind everyone that in many cases ChatGPT may not output completely correct code, and some codes may also have minor errors .
Therefore, if you want to use ChatGPT proficiently to truly improve work efficiency, you still need to be very familiar with the coding language . On this basis, with the assistance of ChatGPT, you can get twice the result with half the effort.
0 4.ChatGPT helps the language expression of papers
ChatGPT can not only help users read and translate existing text , but also help users polish text according to different styles and perform corresponding grammar checks .
What impressed me the most was switching texts according to different writing styles . I also randomly found a paragraph in an article and used ChatGPT to translate it in the corresponding style.
From the two pictures below, we can see that ChatGPT can be polished according to the style I specified for it, and it can also adjust the tense of the full text according to my requirements . This is a function that most other translation software currently does not have. .
Source: Author
In addition, I also tried to let ChatGPT deeply polish my text to enhance the academic and rigorous nature of the text . The picture below also shows the excellent performance of ChatGPT.
Source: Author
2. How to use ChatGPT correctly to assist you in writing papers
Although ChatGPT is powerful, there is still considerable controversy in academic circles over how to use ChatGPT for academic purposes, and many magazines and companies have also launched the function of detecting text generated by ChatGPT. Abuse or improper use of ChatGPT may lead to academic misconduct or even academic misconduct . Counterfeit .
Therefore, how to correctly use ChatGPT to assist you in writing papers is something that every ChatGPT user should understand and master.
0 1. Don’t overly trust the content generated by ChatGPT
ChatGPT is a machine after all, and many times it may speak nonsense when faced with problems it doesn't know about. The author's supervisor once asked ChatGPT to write a brief introduction of himself for promotional posters. As a result, the quality of the content generated by ChatGPT was very low, and he even wrote the wrong supervisor's doctoral school and subsequent work unit.
And the author often discusses the experience of using ChatGPT with other members of the research group. Everyone will find that ChatGPT performs very poorly when facing creative problems.
Therefore, when faced with a problem that you do not understand well, the author recommends that you do not use and trust the content generated by ChatGPT directly, but consult books or other channels based on past experience, and then use ChatGPT when the knowledge reaches a certain level . .
All in all, ChatGPT cannot help you construct your understanding of a problem from 0 to 1 .
0 2. Only by being stronger than ChatGPT can you use ChatGPT better.
Many scholars have also conducted experiments on ChatGPT. They found that ChatGPT will perform better when users give ChatGPT as detailed and professional instructions as possible . This is consistent with the author's experience.
When I ask ChatGPT to generate code, I will provide as much information as possible and inform ChatGPT of some functions that may be used. In this case, ChatGPT can save me a lot of time looking for detailed codes , thereby meeting my requirements. , so many times I jokingly call ChatGPT my secretary.
And combined with the content of the first article, you will also find that if the user cannot be better than ChatGPT in the field of asking questions, he may be confused by its fake news, which will cause certain negative effects.
So when we want ChatGPT to assist us in writing a paper , the person asking the question must be very clear about the content, framework, logic and structure of the paper , so that ChatGPT can better help us.
03. Don’t rely too much on ChatGPT
Although the author gave an example in the previous article that ChatGPT can be used to assist in reading documents, translating documents, etc., after all, ChatGPT cannot completely replace the human brain. If used for a long time, the corresponding abilities may degrade and be completely replaced by ChatGPT.
Take reading English articles as an example. Many graduate students or undergraduates will report that it is difficult to understand English documents when they first come into contact with them, and they will forget them after reading them. It may take a week to read an article.
Image source: unsplash
However, if you rely on ChatGPT in the initial stage of scientific research training, it is very likely that you will still be unable to read English papers independently in the later stages. Over time, you will develop a habit of relying more and more on ChatGPT and eventually be replaced.
The same is true for English writing. ChatGPT can give you "final" help when the text is close to taking shape, but it can never start from scratch.
The author also recommends that you do not overuse ChatGPT when learning a new skill or need to develop a skill . Try to complete it independently first, and then try ChatGPT to improve efficiency after you are fully proficient.
All in all, ChatGPT is more like a double-edged sword brought to us by technological development. If used correctly, ChatGPT can help us improve efficiency and spend more time exploring unknown things. However, once used improperly, it may lead to the weakening of our own core competitiveness and gradually be replaced by machines and artificial intelligence.