Introduction: AI for students
Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly popular, and of course, it has advantages and disadvantages. While some people may think it can lead to the dehumanisation of the learning experience, others think it enhances efficacy and the development of innovative teaching tools. However, many people can agree that AI should be used ethically. It should not be used to take away critical thinking but to aid us in our work. In this blog post, I review should AI tools that students will find beneficial!
Remember: It is not good to copy and paste the content AI gave you. AI is not magic and can sometimes get things wrong. Therefore, you should have a deep understanding of your topic to pick up on any inconsistencies or false information.
All of these tools have a free version. However, the free version may be limited. Upgrading usually comes with a fee.
For Research Papers
Research Rabbit: Your Research Discovery Sidekick
Finding relevant research papers can be a pain. Scrolling endlessly through PubMed or Google Scholar can waste time and limit productivity. However, with ResearchRabbit, finding relevant research papers just become a lot easier! Once you find a paper in your field, ResearchRabbit will create a citation map. It will also generate a network of related articles. The map is useful as it visually represents the relationship between papers. The tool also has a timeline view that shows the year of publication on the vertical axis!
Link: Research Rabbit
ChatPDF: Turn PDFs Into Conversations
Reading research articles to try and extract relevant information is time-consuming. Some research papers may be lengthy and reading the whole thing could be a drag. This is where ChatPDF comes in handy! Users can upload a PDF of a research article and ask specific questions about it, ChatPDF provides answers based on the relevant parts of the document. ChatPDF can do a variety of things, such as:
• Summarise content
• Further explain concepts
• Provide specific data points
This AI software is useful for students and researchers who need to find information in dense documents quickly. The time saved can significantly increase productivity.
Link: ChatPDF
JenniAI: Your Writing Coach
Have you ever struggled with academic writing? Do you have a report or essay due, but you cannot figure out how to structure it? If this is you Jenni AI might be what you need! JenniAI can help with generating ideas, improving your quality of writing and helping you overcome writer’s block. Here’s how it works! First, you give Jenni AI a prompt. This could be as simple as ‘write an essay about the gut-brain axis.’ Or, it can be something more specific such as ‘Outline an intro for my lab report about how different immune cells interact with axonal after a nerve injury, and how this may affect regeneration.’ Then it proceeds to generate text based on the prompt! Jenni AI also provides references to the information it gives you. Make sure to read the papers to make sure all the information is correct!
Link: JenniAI
PaperPal: Your Personal Writing Assistant
Like Jenni AI, PaperPal is a valuable tool for students. It helps those who often struggle with writer’s block. It is also useful for students unsure of how to start an essay. PaperPal serves as an assistant throughout the writing process, offering suggestions tailored to an academic context. It is also helpful for finding references and generating citations. This AI tool benefits non-native English speakers by providing academic writing tips. Additionally, it can check for plagiarism before submission. Overall, PaperPal enhances productivity and streamlines workflows.
Link: PaperPal
Scite AI: Smart Citations for Smarter Research
Scite AI helps students and researchers better understand research articles through smart citations. Just like ChatGPT, you can ask it questions, however, for scientists! When you ask it questions, the answers come from full texts from millions of research articles. Therefore, the answer it gives you is more relevant to your work. It also cites the papers in the answer it gives you, this is beneficial asking you can read these articles to get a better understanding of your work! If you suffer from writer’s block, you can get unblocked by asking a simple question. The answers it gives can spark your ideas! Also, it effectively uses information from research articles to support your research findings! We’ve all been there, spending hours trying to find supporting hours and appropriate references, but this AI does it for you in seconds! I highly recommend this AI if you are doing your PhD.
Link: SciteAI
R discovery: Personalised Reading, Simplified
We all know that finding research papers as a student can be a drag. But it doesn’t have to be! R Discovery uses AI to help students find and read research papers. Based on your area of interest, R Discovery creates a personalised reading feed. This can help you save time and improve your research reading experience. R Discovery is similar to Google Scholar, however with R Discovery personalisation features, it makes your literature search more efficient.
Link: R Discovery
For Grammar and Writing
Grammarly: The Ultimate Grammar Guru
Sometimes when you’ve been writing for so long, the last thing you want to do is to read through your work AGAIN with a fine-tooth comb looking for any spelling mistakes. Luckily, with Grammarly, you won’t have to! I have personally been using Grammarly since I was an undergrad, and it has been a lifesaver. Grammarly corrects all spelling, punctuation and grammar. You can install it into your Microsoft Word, so it can correct your grammar as you write your essays/reports.
Link: Grammarly
Wordtune: Perfect Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar!
Another AI-powered writing assistant that can help students improve their writing is Wordtune. Again, it focuses on grammar, spelling, paraphrasing and summarising. A fancy future of Wordtune that I love is text generation. Wordtune can generate written text based on your writing style or the prompt you type in. For example, you can ask it to expand on a concept, add explanations or write a counterargument. Wordtune’s summarise tool adds uploaded resources to your personalised knowledge library so you can access facts and information later.
Link: WordTune
Quillbot: Beyond Grammer
Like Grammarly, Quillbot is an AI that can correct punctuation grammar and spelling. However, Quillbot focuses on the entire writing process while Grammarly focuses more on revision. Quillbot includes paraphrasing, summarising and grammar checking. On Quillbot, you can customise how much the sentences change. You can also try styles like ‘fluency’ for easy reading or ‘creativity’ for a unique expression. Quillbot is also good for people who want to paraphrase in non-English languages.
Link: Quillbot
Conclusion: Work Smarter, Not Harder
AI is here to help students work smarter, not harder. From discovering research papers to refining your academic writing, these tools are your new best friends in achieving success. Explore these tools, find what works for you, and let AI empower your learning journey.
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