As artificial intelligence infiltrates almost every aspect of daily life, Al-Fanar Media has been talking to education technology experts about which AI tools are the best to help students sharpen their writing and research.
The platforms described below can help students analyse data and research, make predictions based on patterns and trends, and write accurately and correctly. The experts note, however, that the final fact-checking and tone of an article is still something that only humans can do.
Students also need to be aware of several caveats about the responsible use of text-generating AI tools. The texts these tools produce may contain plagiarism, reflect biases built into the databases they trained on, or even produce “hallucinations”, or plausible sounding but incorrect results, such as fabricated events or fake citations.
Teachers should also remind students that AI tools are not a substitute for creativity. Students should use them only to improve the accuracy and clarity of their own writing, and to facilitate their searches for credible and relevant information online.
With these cautions in mind, here is a list of smart tools that that experts tell us can help students write more professionally. (All the platforms mentioned are based in the United States apart from Katteb, whose headquarters are in Dubai.)
1. ChatGPT.
ChatGPT, launched by the San Francisco-based company OpenAI late last year, is one of the best-known AI-powered tools in use for writing in many fields. It can help your searches and suggest new ideas and angles.
However, when it comes to research, you must remember that the free version of ChatGPT is not connected to the Internet. It relies on a database that was last updated in 2021. This makes it a practical tool for obtaining information on events and topics that are more than two years old, but nothing more recent.
One of this platform’s biggest advantages is that it helps you review and correct your texts in terms of spelling, punctuation and word choice. However, you still have to review ChatGPT’s output for accuracy. Like other generative AI models, it creates a new text by recombining elements of existing works, which may include errors or lead to false or misleading results.
Another advantage of ChatGPT is that its developer, OpenAI, makes it available free on the Internet, as well as through mobile apps in both iOS and Android formats.
2. Poe.
Poe (Platform for Open Exploration) is an AI chatbot app that provides access to a library of existing multi-capacity AI models focusing mainly on text, all of which support writing in Arabic. Launched by Quora last December, Poe is available in a desktop version or via or mobile apps for both Android and iOS devices.
Poe includes a free ChatGPT model, along with Claude-instant, a version of Anthropic’s Claude chatbot that is capable of analysing and summarising large blocks of text. Both of these services are available free with no word limits.
Poe also lets users access more advanced AI models like Claude 2 and GPT-4, but these come with subscription or other costs.
3. Bing Chat.
Microsoft’s Bing Chat is an AI-powered search engine that supports searches in Arabic, making it easier for Arab students to access the information they need.
Its search experience asks the artificial intelligence behind the engine questions about the topic you have chosen. The dialogue takes place sequentially in the form of questions and answers.
This tool enables you to explore different angles of the same topic. Also, Bing Chat is able to “understand” the issue you are inquiring about without having to ask lengthy explanatory questions.
Another advantage is this search engine’s ability to display references for the information in its answers, to help you verify its information and spot AI “hallucinations”.
Bing Chat is available as an app for Android and iOS mobile devices, or as a direct smart assistant within the Microsoft Edge browser on computers and smartphones.
4. ResearchRabbit.
ResearchRabbit is a smart platform most frequently used for reviewing the scholarly literature relevant to your research project. It saves you time by using artificial intelligence to sift through databases of millions of published research papers and journal articles in various fields.
It enables you to locate any research paper on a topic and obtain all the available information about it, such as all the references cited in that paper, as well as all other papers that cite the selected work.
ResearchRabbit also allows you to view all research articles published by a specific researcher, and suggests other authors and articles that may be relevant to your research topic.
The highly interactive platform arranges the papers it finds around a common theme and gives you a visualisation graph showing connections between the papers. You can determine which are most relevant to your research and store them in a separate collection.
The platform is available in English and is free. For a good description of how it works, see this article by a data services specialist at Singapore Management University.
5. Katteb.
Katteb is one of the few AI-powered text-generating platforms that help people write in Arabic. It can help you draft text supported by credible sources, enhancing your paper’s credibility and trust scores in search engines.
It also offers different ways of editing text and writing about different topics in more than 60 languages, including Arabic and English, by simply typing in the title of the topic you wish to write about. The platform also helps you come up with ideas for research and suggests subtitles to divide long articles into different parts.
The platform offers a free trial period that allows you to write 2,000 words. After that, you will need to subscribe to continue using its services.