It is becoming increasingly common for researchers to turn to generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT to help them with their projects. While tools like ChatGPT certainly have their uses, they are not good for finding sources for your articles or essays. In fact, a recent study explored the two latest versions of ChatGPT. The authors found that of the articles generated by GPT-3.5, 98.1% of them were fabricated. GPT-4 is better at finding sources, but 20.6% of the articles it generated were determined to be fake.
When generative AI sites generate/produce inaccurate or false information responses, the responses are called “hallucinations.” Chatbots hallucinate for a few reasons: the data the models train on may be biased or incomplete, plus they are predictive and generate new content. However, there are safeguards to verify accuracy.
Chatbots tend to hallucinate citations in various ways. It could entirely fabricate a citation including author, article title and journal. Or perhaps it will use a journal title known for content on a subject and generate a fake article that would be credible for that journal. Or it might take an author known to be an expert in that field and hallucinate an article under their name.
Fortunately, there are ways to tell if a source produced by ChatGPT or another chatbot is fabricated. You can search for the article title with quotes around it in Google or Google Scholar and see if you can find it. You can also look for the journal title and see if the citation matches the volume, issue, and page numbers for the journal. Alternatively, you could do an internet search for the article’s author and see if you can find a publication list.
ChatGPT may not be great for finding sources, but it can be helpful for generating keywords for your topic that you can then use in one of the library’s many literature databases. Chatbots can also help with grammar or sentence structure, much like the Writing Center @ UNMC. Don’t forget that McGoogan liaison librarians are here to help you find the sources you need for your research. If you need help, schedule a meeting with an Education & Research Librarian or email AskUs.
Blog Author
Katie Bishop, Associate Dean