5 Hottest FREE AI Tools for Research That Are ACTUALLY Useful!

Dr Amina Yonis
5 Sept 202311:22

TLDRThis video discusses five free AI tools that are particularly useful for researchers and academics. The first tool, Unriddle, allows users to upload a research paper and ask questions, providing tailored questions and explanations. The second, Paper Pal, helps improve writing through a web app and a Word add-in, offering features like language checks, synonyms, and text trimming. The third tool, Chat GPT, can be used to enhance titles and provide alternative suggestions. Illicit, the fourth tool, enables users to upload multiple research papers for comparison and provides summaries and critical analysis. Lastly, Connected Papers helps generate a research paper map, showing connections between papers and aiding in literature review. The video emphasizes ethical use of AI in academia, suggesting that AI should be used for understanding and inspiration, not for copying and pasting content.

Takeaways

  • 📄 **Unriddle**: An AI tool that allows users to upload research papers and ask questions, providing tailored questions and explanations to help understand the content better.
  • 📝 **Note-taking**: Users can write notes alongside the research paper in Unriddle, aiding in personal reflection and literature review preparation.
  • ✍️ **AI Assistance**: Offers the ability to ask AI for summaries, writing improvements, and other enhancements without promoting unethical copying and pasting.
  • 📝 **Paperpal**: A platform that enhances writing quality through a web app and Word add-in, identifying language issues, suggesting synonyms, and offering rephrasing options.
  • 🔍 **Synonym Usage**: Paperpal provides synonyms based on their frequency in research literature, helping users choose the most appropriate academic terms.
  • ➗ **Text Trimming**: The tool can reduce text length while maintaining meaning, useful for condensing sections of a paper without losing essential information.
  • 📈 **Chat GPT**: Can be utilized to improve titles and generate multiple title options, encouraging users to create unique titles by mixing and matching suggestions.
  • 🔍 **Illicit and Elicit**: A platform for uploading and comparing multiple research papers, providing abstracts, summaries, and critical analysis to assess paper trustworthiness.
  • 📊 **Research Paper Analysis**: Illicit and Elicit offers insights into what was tested, measured outcomes, participant details, and trustworthiness factors of research papers.
  • 🗺️ **Connected Papers**: A tool for visualizing the connections between research papers, creating a map that displays related works, citation counts, and publication years.
  • 🔗 **Research Mapping**: Connected Papers helps in identifying important related research that may have been overlooked and can be included in literature reviews for context.

Q & A

  • What is the primary controversy surrounding AI in academic research?

    -The primary controversy is the ethical use of AI in academic research, particularly concerning the automation of tasks such as proofreading, editing, and finding research papers, which can potentially lead to issues of originality and academic integrity.

  • What is Unriddle and how does it assist in academic research?

    -Unriddle is an AI platform that allows users to upload a research paper and interact with it by asking questions. It generates tailored questions to the document, providing explanations in a simplified manner and offering insights into the importance of specific concepts within the research.

  • How does Paperpal help improve writing?

    -Paperpal is a platform that helps improve writing by identifying language issues, providing synonyms for better word choice, offering rephrasing suggestions, and enabling text trimming to reduce word count without losing the essence of the content.

  • What is the ethical way to use AI in academia according to the transcript?

    -The ethical way to use AI in academia is to understand the information provided by AI, then write in your own words and properly reference the sources. It is not about copying and pasting AI-generated content directly into your work.

  • How can Chat GPT be used to improve titles?

    -Chat GPT can be used to suggest improved titles for research papers. It can provide a slight improvement on an existing title or generate multiple title options, allowing the user to mix and match words from different suggestions to create a customized title.

  • What is the purpose of the platform Illicit?

    -Illicit is a platform that allows users to upload research papers for a better understanding. It provides abstract summaries, outlines what was tested, measured outcomes, participant information, and an assessment of the paper's trustworthiness, aiding in critical analysis.

  • How does Connected Papers help in academic research?

    -Connected Papers generates a visual map of related academic papers to the one selected by the user. It helps in understanding connections between papers, identifying highly cited works, and discovering relevant research that may have been missed.

  • What are TKIs and why are they important in the experiment mentioned in the transcript?

    -TKIs, or Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors, are important in the mentioned experiment because they are being studied for their potential cardiotoxicity. The research examines their effects, which is crucial for understanding their implications in a medical context.

  • What is the significance of the threshold concentration in the context of the research paper discussed?

    -The threshold concentration is significant because it determines the level at which a substance or condition becomes critically important or effective in the context of the experiment, possibly indicating a turning point in the study's outcomes.

  • How does the AI tool help in summarizing and improving the writing of a research paper?

    -The AI tool can summarize sections of the paper, suggest improvements to make the writing clearer and more impactful, and provide users with the ability to ask questions and receive detailed explanations, thus enhancing the understanding and presentation of the research.

  • What are the key features of the AI platforms discussed that make them useful for researchers?

    -The key features include the ability to upload and interact with research papers, generate tailored questions, provide detailed explanations, improve writing through language checks and synonym suggestions, trim text for conciseness, suggest alternative titles, compare and analyze multiple papers, and generate a map of related papers for a comprehensive understanding of the research landscape.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to AI Academic Tools

The video discusses the controversy surrounding AI in academic applications and introduces five AI platforms beneficial for researchers, particularly those starting their PhD or engaging in academic research. The platforms are designed to assist with various aspects of the research process, from proofreading and editing to finding research papers and writing outlines.

05:01

🔍 Unriddle: Interactive Research Paper Analysis

The first platform, Unriddle, is highlighted for its ability to upload and analyze research papers. It generates tailored questions to help understand the paper's content, from basic explanations to specific queries about experimental details. Users can also take notes and ask the AI for summaries or writing improvements, emphasizing the importance of understanding and ethical use rather than direct copying.

10:02

🖋️ Paperpal: Writing Enhancement Tool

Paperpal is the second platform, which helps improve writing quality through a web app and a Word add-in. It identifies language issues, offers synonyms based on research usage frequency, rewrites text, and trims content to reduce word count. It is a versatile tool for refining academic writing while maintaining originality and ethical standards.

📝 Chat GPT: Title Improvement and Brainstorming

Chat GPT is presented as a tool for enhancing titles and brainstorming, allowing users to input a title and receive improved versions or multiple suggestions. It is recommended to mix and match suggestions to create a unique and effective title, rather than directly copying from the AI's output.

📈 Illicit: Comparative Research Paper Analysis

Illicit is a platform for uploading and comparing multiple research papers. It provides abstract summaries, details about the tested interventions, measured outcomes, and participant information. Additionally, it offers a trust evaluation feature, helping users critically assess the reliability of research papers based on various factors.

🌐 Connected Papers: Visual Research Mapping

Connected Papers is a website for generating a research paper map, illustrating connections between related academic papers. It allows users to select an origin paper and view its connections to other works, arranged by similarity and other factors like citation count and publication year. This tool is useful for identifying and incorporating related research into literature reviews.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡AI Tools

AI Tools refer to software applications that use artificial intelligence to perform tasks that would typically require human intelligence. In the context of the video, AI Tools are being used to assist with academic research, such as proofreading, editing, and summarizing research papers. They are particularly useful for students and researchers looking to streamline their work processes.

💡Academic Research

Academic Research is the systematic investigation and study of a particular subject or topic to establish facts and draw conclusions. The video discusses how AI tools can aid in various stages of academic research, from finding papers to writing outlines, which is crucial for students starting their PhDs or engaging in scholarly work.

💡Unriddle

Unriddle is one of the AI platforms mentioned in the video that allows users to upload a research paper and interact with it by asking questions. It generates tailored questions to help users understand the paper better, which is particularly useful for new researchers trying to grasp complex concepts quickly.

💡Proofreading

Proofreading is the process of reading a written text to detect and correct errors in grammar, spelling, and style. In the video, it is mentioned as one of the functions that AI platforms can assist with, which is essential for academic writing to ensure clarity and professionalism.

💡Paperpal

Paperpal is an AI platform highlighted in the video that helps improve academic writing. It offers features like language correction, synonym suggestions, and text trimming. It assists researchers in refining their work to meet academic standards, which is vital for publishing and sharing research findings.

💡Chat GPT

Chat GPT, mentioned in the video, is an AI model used for generating human-like text based on given prompts. It can be used to improve titles and provide alternative suggestions, aiding researchers in creating more impactful and engaging headings for their papers, which is important for capturing the reader's interest.

💡Illicit

Illicit, in the context of the video, is likely a mispronunciation or typo for 'Elicit,' which is a platform that allows for the uploading and comparison of research papers. It provides summaries and critical analysis tools to help researchers understand and evaluate the trustworthiness and relevance of academic papers.

💡Connected Papers

Connected Papers is a tool that generates a visual map of research papers and their connections. It helps researchers identify related work and understand the broader context of their research topic. The video suggests using this tool to find relevant literature and even include the generated graphs in literature reviews for a visual representation of research connections.

💡Ethical Use of AI

The ethical use of AI in academia is emphasized in the video, stressing that AI should be used as a tool to enhance understanding and writing, rather than for copying and pasting content. It is important for maintaining academic integrity and ensuring that research is original and properly cited.

💡Systematic Review

A systematic review is a type of research study that uses a rigorous, well-defined method of selecting, appraising, and synthesizing all relevant studies on a particular topic. The video implies the use of AI tools like Illicit (Elicit) to assist in such reviews by summarizing and comparing multiple research papers efficiently.

💡Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity refers to the commitment to maintaining honest and responsible scholarship in academic work. The video stresses that while AI can aid in the research process, it should not be used to simply copy and paste content. Instead, researchers should use AI to gain a better understanding and then express their findings in their own words, adhering to the principles of academic integrity.

Highlights

Unriddle is an AI tool that allows users to upload a research paper and ask questions to better understand the content.

Unriddle generates tailored questions for specific research papers, providing a starting point for readers.

The AI explains concepts in basic terms, which can be beneficial for researchers seeking a simplified explanation.

Unriddle provides detailed explanations that relate to the importance and impact of the research.

Users can take notes and ask AI for summarization or writing improvements within the platform.

AI should be used for understanding and not for unethical copying and pasting of content.

Paper Pal is a platform that improves writing through a web app and a Word add-in, identifying language issues and suggesting synonyms.

Paper Pal can rewrite text, provide a trimmed version, and help reduce word count while maintaining meaning.

Chat GPT can be used to improve titles and provide multiple title suggestions for research papers.

Illicit allows users to upload multiple research papers for comparison, providing abstract summaries and key information.

Illicit helps in assessing the trustworthiness of research papers by analyzing various factors.

Connected Papers is a tool that generates a research paper map, showing connections and relationships between papers.

The research paper map includes nodes representing academic papers, with size indicating citation count and color indicating publishing year.

The map from Connected Papers can be used to identify related research and includes in literature reviews for a visual representation.

These AI platforms are particularly useful for those starting their PhD, research, or university studies.

The use of AI in academia is controversial, but these tools can assist in various aspects of the research process ethically.

The video provides a quick tutorial on how to use each of the five AI platforms for academic purposes.