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Comment by quantified | Hacker News Reader

> My wife’s career is in materials science, and she often writes technical papers related to her work. Recently she used ChatGPT to collect background information for a paper she was writing.

Damning indictment of computer literacy, but a good example of the problem facing the majority.

It's not that no one has been raising these issues, just read comments on HN posts. But no one in the hype-industrial complex has popularized them.

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Agreed. Who the heck inserts a citation into a paper without actually reading the source material? Maybe ChatGPT is a great way to reveal the frauds.

Sounds like it got inserted into a draft. She did read the source material, just after that draft.

Exactly. You're supposed to read and cite carefully, not just "citation dump" articles in favour of whatever argument you're trying to make.

My experience doing that is that this is not common practice - talking about following up on a reference to find it actually refutes a claim, or more commonly that a citation has little to do with what it is being cited for (more extrapolation than a completely inappropriate use).

I agree with your should, but I do not think it is a realistic expectation right now.

As I see it, even if the only positive impact the ChatGPT ends up having on the world is in forcing researchers to double-check citations, then "mission fucking accomplished".

There are so many garbage papers in various venues that maybe it's a good idea. It forces readers to check them too, this puts them all on the lookout.

Yes, you're SUPPOSED to do that.

But in practice people are more likely to read you if you cite them. Furthermore reviewers are more likely to accept your paper if you cite the papers that they think are important. So the INCENTIVE is cite as liberally as you can.

Every undergrad ever.

It's pretty shocking to hear that happening to a scientist.

I discussed my research with ChatGPT and it was immediately apparent it's not qualified to have these niche discussions.

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