{"id":360589,"date":"2025-01-05T16:44:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-05T15:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=360589"},"modified":"2025-01-05T16:44:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-05T15:44:29","slug":"use-of-artificial-intelligence-in-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=360589","title":{"rendered":"Use of Artificial Intelligence in Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guest Post by<\/em><\/strong> Willis Eschenbach<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an amateur scientist, I am all in favor of one aspect of the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI). I employ it as the world\u2019s fastest librarian, able to gather and summarize an amazing amount of data in a few moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently I thought I might use AI to educate me on the science of autism and vaccines. Note that I came into this question knowing almost nothing about any underlying scientific studies of the possible connection between autism and vaccines, other than numerous passionate claims from both sides of the question on the web.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s how I went about gathering and checking the information. Thanks to a heads-up from Charles the Moderator, I use an AI called perplexity.ai. I\u2019ve stuck with it for a curious reason\u2014perplexity once told me it was reluctant to answer a question I asked about rainfall in a remote part of the Sahara desert because there was so little data available that it might be hallucinating an answer \u2026 I took that as a good sign that it recognizes that it has limitations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My questions are in bold<\/strong> below, my comments are in plain text, and perplexity\u2019s answers are in italics<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Me: List major studies showing that autism either is or is not associated with vaccination.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note the construction. I\u2019ve found that in doing scientific research it is important to specifically ask for evidence for both sides of the question. You want to avoid general questions like \u201cWhat is known about autism and vaccines\u201d<\/em>. With that kind of phrasing, often an AI will not fully explore the question space, leaving out important evidence for one side or the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s perplexity\u2019s answer to my question above:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several major studies have investigated the potential link between vaccines and autism. Here\u2019s a list of key studies showing no association between vaccines and autism:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Taylor et al. (1999):<\/em>\n