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ChatGPT: What you need to know: Home

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot designed to mimic human conversation.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a "natural language" tool that uses artificial intelligence to allow users to generate human-sounding text. This chatbot is designed to respond to statements and answer questions in a natural human language format, making it a very popular tool. ChatGPT has been used in a variety of industries, but conversations surrounding its applications in research, publication, and medical education are bringing to light some of its limitations - see the pros and cons in the boxes below. 

This guide presents information about this new tool and its implications for medical education and publishing, including some recent reviews and opinions across medical research and education. 

ChatGPT seen through the Dunning-Kruger effect*

Watch this 50 min video about ChatGPT & GenAI: Separating Hype from Reality

This link takes you to a website with a more detailed explanation: The Rise of ChatGPT

*the Dunning Kruger effect refers to a cognitive bias that leads us to overestimate our abilities or knowledge

UCSF Grand Rounds on ChatGPT

Pros of ChatGPT

ChatGPT has benefits for writing, publishing, and other tasks:

  • Writing: can produce a first draft of text that can then be crafted into a final product that suits the needs of researchers and authors
  • Time saving: can reduce time spent on lower order or repetitive tasks
  • Coding: can generate code or identify errors in coding

Cons of ChatGPT

Negative aspects of ChatGPT:

  • "Hallucinations": creates false citations
  •  Surface level competency: generated text appears accurate and appropriate, but sometimes contain errors upon deeper critical evaluation
  • Inaccurate MeSH terms used: non-existent or inaccurate MeSH terms are created and added to the paper, specifically when used to share a search string
  • Biomedical implications: not designed specifically for biomedical information; can be lower level content than expected for professional writing