FAQ: Can Generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) provide a list of sources based on my topic?

What is Generative AI?

• Generative AI tools have been developed by being fed on large amounts of data and information.
• The algorithm used provides a set of instructions enabling the tool to recognize patterns so that it can predict the next word and generate a likely answer.
• When asked a Generative AI tool can provide output resulting in fiction writing, a poem, and produce images but it is debatable whether the output generated is a new creation or an original piece of work.
• ChatGPT is an example of a generative text artificial intelligence (AI) tool. ChatGPT was developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022.

How Generative AI works

• Generative AI does NOT work like Google or the library databases.
• It does not search the Internet or the scholarly journals in the library.
• It learns using a snapshot of massive amounts of training data taken from the Internet from time to time.

Generative AI and Reference Credibility

• Prompting AI to locate sources about your research topic will generate a list of references that may seem like legitimate citations to articles.
• AI references might be "hallucinations" and not even exist as published research. While hallucinations do happen on occasion, not all AI is equally prone to inventing sources.
• Some references provided by AI may exist because they were included in the training data, but no distinction is made between real and made-up citations in the list generated.
• AI is answering the prompt with what it thinks are examples of sources relevant to your research topic.

For more information on navigating AI resources, check out our Artificial Intelligence and Media Literacy guide.