Research writing can be quite complex, especially for those who are not full-time students. Imagine having to work, do business, manage a family and still do your academic work: very complex.

Research writing is fun, whether it is your MSC research writing or a PhD research writing, it is important to do it well and getting it right, even with the use of AI is not beans. 

So the big question: How can I use AI for My Academic Work and not get caught?

To start with, you need to know how you cannot use AI. 

1. You cannot use AI to write sections or chapters - it will not have the quality, critical discourse and debate expected of academic work.

2. You cannot rely on references generated with AI - sometimes, those references and citations are either wrong, fake or non-existent. I have seen a couple of students who get into trouble because of that.

3. You cannot take everything generated with AI 100% - AI is wrong in some instances, and using AI to determine your research topic, objectives and questions may often set a trap when it comes to data analysis.

4. You cannot use AI to paraphrase a text - so once you use AI to write a text and use another AI tool to paraphrase the text, some advanced AI tools can still detect it.

5. You cannot accurately Humanise AI text - if AI cannot write like a human (which is why AI text detectors can tell that the text you wrote was done with AI), then another AI cannot change text effectively by humanising it. 


Based on the above, there are some tips for using AI in your research:

Tip 1: Study the school guidelines first and know what is expected.

Tip 2: Do some background research first, you need knowledge to be able to tell when AI is “carrying you to a land of no return”.

Tip 3: Rather than using AI to write an entire section, use AI to get critical data or text for that section and then organise it yourself.

Tip 4: Even if you have to pull content together with AI, paraphrase and rewrite it by yourself.

Tip 5: Double-check every citation or reference produced by AI before adopting it for your work.

Tip 6: Where possible, use advanced AI models to gather data. I mean, models that can browse the internet.

Tip 7: Develop your survey questionnaire based on construct and not based on AI. Most students use AI-developed instruments to collect data that does not tie in with the research question.

Tip 8: Only use AI for clarification or to resolve conflict in your research work.

Let’s stop here for now. Resist the temptation to use AI hook, line and sinker. Instead, engage a research partner or consultant to guide you throughout the research process.

I am Sani Emmanuel Numa, an experienced research enthusiast; It would be a delight to collaborate with you on your research project. 

Let’s chat: +234-706-818-0074 or check up my website: primestrategicservices.

Thank you for sharing these tips, Emmanuel! They are very helpful. I use ChatGPT to generate a lot of content every day and have posted almost 30,000 pages so far. But I found that using only AI-generated content can lower search engine rankings because Google detects and penalizes it. Now, I use an AI humanizer tool to avoid detection, which has improved my rankings. Looking forward to more insights from you!