SCC Research Guides: Artificial Intelligence: AI Tools for Academics

AI Tools for Academics

AI is continuously evolving, and so is its use in academics. Understand that you are responsible for your own academic work. This means if you use generative AI and the AI tool provides false information, you will be held responsible and not the AI tool.

Always check with your instructor before using AI tools for academic purposes.

Ways to Use AI

There are ways to use AI tools ethically and effectively for academic purposes. Here are a few examples for how to use AI.

Obtaining topic overviews
Brainstorming ideas
Identifying keywords for research
Summarizing complicated texts
Answering simple questions
Creating outlines

Below, we have provided links to popular AI tools and video links for how to use these tools.

Recommended AI Tools

Google Gemini
Gemini is a large language model developed by Google AI. It responds to prompts and provides sources for where information was retrieved.
How to Use Gemini
The video "Prompt Your Way with Gemini" produced by Google shows users how to use Gemini.

Copilot
A conversational AI tool for gathering information and completing tasks. Copilot only provides references if requested.
How to Use Copilot
A video produced by Microsoft that introduces Copilot and demonstrates how to use it.

Consensus
Consensus is an AI-powered academic search engine that searches for academic papers and studies.
Consensus, AI Powered Academic Search Engine
A video produced by Consensus that demonstrates how to use this AI tool for scholarly research

Perplexity
An AI-powered search engine that provides real-time results and provides sources. (Double-check the sources because sometimes Perplexity's sources don't match the provided information.)
An Introduction to Perplexity
A video from the company demonstrating how to use Perplexity

ChatGPT
ChatGPT is one of the most well-known AI language models. It is conversational AI, but it does not provide sources and sometimes "hallucinates" sources.
What Can You Do With GPT?
A video produced by Open AI that provides up-to-date information about how to use the latest version of ChatGPT (GPT-4)