Scientific tools based on LLMs

Mastering AI Chatbots: Optimizing Research through Effective Use

Mag. Dr. Hannah Metzler
Complexity Science Hub & Medical University of Vienna

Slides: https://hannahmetzler.eu/ai_skills

Original title: Enhancing your research outputs with LLM Chatbots

Scientific tools based on LLMs

• Notebook LM
• Perplexity AI
• Elicit

Scientific tools based on LLMs

Notebook LM

What for?

• Summarizing & integrating sources to interactive media pieces
• Learning new materials in easy ways: e.g. listen to podcast of papers
• Creating blog posts, social media threads, research summaries…

How?

• Upload sources (documents, websites, video, text)
• Media pieces: Podcast, Briefing Doc, Study Guide, FAQ, Table of Content
• Questions & answers, references, quotes, …

Misinformation notebook: https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/92418463-42e9-4555-8ede-ddbbcb8c7394?original_referer=https:%2F%2Fnotebooklm.google%23&pli=1

Create a new notebook

Misinformation notebook: https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/92418463-42e9-4555-8ede-ddbbcb8c7394?original_referer=https:%2F%2Fnotebooklm.google%23&pli=1

Upload/select sources & Notebook guide

Misinformation notebook: https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/92418463-42e9-4555-8ede-ddbbcb8c7394?original_referer=https:%2F%2Fnotebooklm.google%23&pli=1

Questions & answers with quotes

References with links to where information comes from

Output example: Briefing Doc

- Includes direct quotes!

Generating podcasts

• Let’s listen!

Perplexity

• Ask research questions & follow-up questions
• Answers like an LLM with scientific references
• Useful:
  • For brainstorming
  • Exploring a new topic
  • Quickly learning the basics about a new topic (as an editor/reviewer)
• Example age & emotion regulation

Choose databases

• Tip: Search for best tools using the “social” option to search Reddit and avoid clutter & adds

Deep Research with Perplexity

• 3 queries/day for free

Rewrite an answer with other models

Elicit: The AI research assistant

• Get an overview of many studies quickly
• Useful for reviews, meta-analyses

Study features

Filters

Create custom columns

Link to paper quotes

Fine-tune based on relevant papers

Elicit subscription

• Free version: limited usage, for occasional usage
• Subscription for a few months: for systematic reviews/meta-analyses, PhD writing

Exercise Option 1: NotebookLM (15 min)

• Create a new notebook and upload your 20 papers (or 3 other sources)
• Create a Briefing Doc and Table of Content (& other outputs)
• Ask a suggested question, add your own question (maybe also try one that is not directly covered)
  • Check the different references in the answers and their embedding in the source
• Create a podcast with a customized focus (listen with headphones)

Exercise Option 2: Perplexity (15 min)

• Choose a new research question
• Choose the academic database and pro search
• Ask some follow-up questions
• Check the sources: are they good?
• Rewrite the answer using another model

Exercise Option 3: Elicit (15 min)

• Choose a (familiar) research question
• Delete an irrelevant paper
• Select relevant study features
• Select a filter (or use a keyword)
• Add a custom-made column
• Find the part of the paper describing the feature
• Upload 3 papers and chat with them

Other tools to explore

• Tome for presentations
• Translation www.deepl.com
• ResearchRabbit for literature search based on paper networks & paper alerts
• CustomGPTs: Many different ScholarGPTs, this one seems to work reasonably