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AI-generated science summaries promote understanding andn trust
Nov. 25, 2024.
2 mins. read.
11 Interactions
AI-generated summaries of scientific papers help readers understood science better and make them trust scientists more.
About the Writer
In a world where science plays a big role in our everyday decisions, understanding it can be tricky. Scientists often write in a way that’s hard for most people to grasp, using lots of technical terms or jargon. This can make the public feel left out or distrustful of science because they can’t understand what’s being said. But a new study suggests a way to bridge this gap using artificial intelligence (AI).
David Markowitz, a professor at Michigan State University, has been looking into whether AI can make scientific writing easier to understand. His research, published in PNAS Nexus, shows that AI can indeed simplify complex scientific papers.
AI does this by creating summaries or “significance statements” that use simpler words and sentences. For example, instead of “occupation,” AI might just say “job,” which is easier for everyone to understand.
In his experiments, Markowitz found that when people read these AI-generated summaries, they understood the science better. They could explain what they read more accurately than those who only read the summaries written by scientists. This boost in comprehension also seemed to make readers trust and think more highly of the scientists involved.
The importance of better science communication
However, there’s a twist: when asked, people guessed that the simpler summaries were written by humans, not AI, showing a common misconception about how AI communicates.
While AI can make science more accessible, there are still things we need to learn. For one, as AI gets better, it could become a common tool in scientific journals, but we’re not there yet. There’s also the worry that simplifying too much might lose important details or introduce mistakes if not monitored. Plus, it’s important for readers to know when AI has been used to avoid any confusion or bias.
Ultimately, while AI offers a promising way to make science more digestible, scientists themselves could also improve how they communicate by using less jargon and clearer language, which might mean even without AI, we can all understand science better.
Markowitz summarized his findings in an article published in The Conversation.
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5 Comments
5 thoughts on “AI-generated science summaries promote understanding andn trust”
After discovering Mindplex I decided to use it for reading these science/tech news as the first thing every morning. I do read science papers on regular basis as well but well-written summaries enable to keep up with across a surprisingly wide range of topics in reasonable time.
AI services that can make understanding scientific discoveries and other progress more accessible to everyone are tremendously valuable, imo. Even though access to information has increased it seems that increasingly more people have lost interest or become disfranchised from being aware of the cutting-edge development. There has not been time in human history when progress and breakthroughs have been more exciting than today. What else could we do to turn even some of this cynicism into optimism and inspiration?
Finally, big thanks to Amara, Giulio and everyone who has contributed to all this great content. It's been highly valuabl
e!
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Thank you Henriq!
And by the way: I do use AI assistants (mostly Grok, but also the others) to write short news summaries.
This doesn't really save time - I get an AI to write a draft summary first but then I have to check and double check it for hallucinations and misunderstandings (which do happen now and then), so the time saved is taken again by the revision process. Then I edit the summary manually, often with significant changes in emphasis.
So using AI doesn't save me time. But I think it helps achieving simplicity, clarity, and readability. In my standard prompt I have "using very simple language."
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Yeah, that's true. In order for us to understand science better, scientists need to write in a way that’s clearer for most people to grasp the idea.
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Yes. I try to write short and simple summaries that help readers grasp the core ideas. I include links to the sources and any good detailed commentaries that I can find for the readers who want to go deeper into the details.
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Actually, I appreciate your writing style! Your ability to craft short and simple summaries makes complex ideas so much easier to grasp. I would love to thank you for making learning more accessible!
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