In 2023, I Esben Thormann, DTU Chemistry introduced the use of AI in the ‘Introductory Project in Chemistry.’ Additionally, I made it mandatory for students to include a paragraph in their reports detailing how AI had been utilized in their projects. Below, I have added some of these paragraphs, some of which are in Danish and some in English.
For the 2024 version of the course, based on the lessons learned in 2023, I plan to provide more effective examples during the introductory sessions. I will also discuss the dangers and pitfalls of AI usage more explicitly.
Text pieces from student reports:
” Denne rapport har gjort brug af chatbotten ChatGPT 3.5 i starten af processen til inspiration af valg af underemner. Derudover er chatbotten benyttet til at få en hurtig og nem forklaring til et emne der ikke var hel forståelse for eller til omformulering af ord og sætninger.”
”As a new requirement by DTU, we have to talk about our position in regards to using AI technology such as ChatGPT and if we used it, how we used it. It would seem to be counter-productive to be against ChatGPT and AI as a whole when writing about the following subject - in large parts because AI and machine learning is accelerating the field at a pace previously unheard of, a quick Google Scholar search will yield 27.100 results[52], with 5.570 results since 2023, while all of it may not be top-quality research, it’s a testament to the rate at which the field is growing and is using the technologies available for creating a better and more sustainable future in terms of energy storage. In regards to our own use of AI in the following report, it made sense to utilize the technologies available to us, especially concerning the research we were looking at was, at times, a higher educational level than what we are currently at, thus we have used technology such as ChatGPT to explain concepts for us, which we ourselves couldn’t figure out. Moreover the newest ”GPT” features has been used to utilize the ”Consensus” and ”ScholarAI” GPT’s, which both have access to a lot of research articles, meaning you could utilize these plugins in co-operation with google scholar and DTU’s own FindIt for finding relevant articles. In some sections we have also used Grammarly, to try and fix our grammatical errors as English is not any of the writer’s first language, however, Grammarly has started to use generative AI[53], and thus we may have missed certain places in the text, where it has edited the text while fixing language.”
”In this project, the AI-technology, ChatGPT, has been used to investigate the area of intumescent coatings by using the chatbot to explore and discover different subtopics within intumescent coatings.
It has also been used to explore alternatives to the blowing agent melamine, as the substance is regarded as a very high concern and health hazard [3]. By looking into the physical chemical properties and other qualities that makes melamine an ideal blowing agent, ChatGPT was asked to propose different substances with similar traits. The main focus on these questions were the type of gasses released during thermal decomposition and can be seen in appendix A. The proposals were then listed and examined to determine if they were able to replace melamine.”
“Chat-GPT is in this project used as a tool for exploring and creating a foundation for further knowledge. By using Chat-GPT to gain a quick overview before reading an article, the article is made easier to understand. Additionally, we used CHAT-GPT to swiftly locate LaTeX commands, discover synonyms, and refine formulations to enhance the overall reading experience. When using Chat-GPT it is important to keep in mind that it is not known where the information comes from, and makes decisions according to the data it is being fed. Because of this Chat-GPT cannot be used as a source for knowledge, but rather as a tool to gain a foundation for quicker understanding of actual scientific articles.”
“Even though AI has spread over the last few years, we have chosen not to use it. There is a free version (ChatGPT-3.5) and a paid version (ChatGPT-4).1 None of us wanted to pay for the service so the free version was the only one available. In the free version the newest data you can get is from 20211 and we think that it is too old when we can find much newer articles by just searching ourselves. We also have some skepticism about where it gets its information from and how we should cite it.”
“Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been used in this report to seek inspiration and to get a very general overview of which subjects might be of interest for further study within the overall topic of protein kinetic stability. Using AI, mainly ChatGPT, presented a range of issues of different severity. The biggest problem was that the AI presented knowledge that’s only applicable to specific protein families as generally applicable. This is problematic in general but severe in our case since very little is general for all proteins in our given subject. Furthermore the used AI did not present any data with a margin of error, which is not preferable and cited no sources. Therefore AI has not been used neither as a source nor to write any of this report.”
“During the project we felt it necessary to discuss the use of AI (specifically ChatGPT) to perhaps enhance our knowledge and therefore our project. It has become such an integral part of our society and also the educational system, hence we thought it to be an inevitable part of our project. Not necessarily in terms of using the AI, but rather our thinking behind its utilization. How big of a part should it play or should it even play a part? We must first understand what ChatGPT is and it’s purpose. ChatGPT is a tool that utilizes AI to understand an input (often a question) and generate dynamic text to respond. It’s also important to understand that the knowledge that the AI possesses isn’t new thinking. It’s knowledge already known to man. It’s constantly adapting and learning. If you were to ask the same question twice, you would most likely get two different answers to the same question. Furthermore, the information that it gathers come from an array of different sources, which leads to the next point. We don’t know the sources that ChatGPT utilizes, which is problematic if you plan on the tool being a big part of your project, since you won’t be able to reference your sources. It’s never a good idea not being able to source large parts of your project and plagiarism might become a problem, even if unintentional. It is therefore our believe that AI and ChatGPT is best utilized as a sort of “sparring partner” to perhaps help get you started and thinking, instead of just inserting long passages of text of which you don’t know the sources and therefore can’t vouch for the content.”