You’re deep in a scene that needs a detail you don’t have—the name of a piece of equipment, the word for a knot, the way a thing actually works—and the chatbot is right there, ready to answer in seconds. But should you use it? Using AI for research is tempting, and honestly, it’s already woven into tools we all rely on. The harder question is whether you can trust what it tells you. In this video I’ll share how I actually use AI in my research, the one rule I never break before I trust a single thing it tells me, and an example where a chatbot handed me a confident answer that turned out to be wrong. AI is powerful. It also makes mistakes—so I confirm everything on my own, and the writing is always mine.
The question is, do I use artificial intelligence in research? And the answer is complicated. In that every publisher I work with has an absolute prohibition on using AI for writing in any way. So I’m extremely wary of using AI at all But you know, how can you not? If you’re using a mapping program to find out where the streets intersect, you’re using artificial intelligence for research.
Do I go to a chatbot and ask it research questions? Yes, I do. And I find that it’s wrong sometimes and offers insights that would not have occurred to me other times. So I always validate it.
I always independently and separately confirm the accuracy. I mean, I’ll give you one example I wanted to write a diver in a cave setting. This is very dangerous. It’s a hobby.
It’s illegal in many places and certainly really very dangerous. They do night dives in caves. Can you imagine? I didn’t know the name of any of the equipment or the tie rope that is your safety net to get back to the exit and so on.
And I was able to use a chatbot to give me the vocabulary. And from the vocabulary, I could then write something that felt quite credible. But you know what? I checked all of the vocabulary and I found out it actually had named a knot that might be used That just isn’t used in that context.
It’s used in other boating contexts, but not in a night dive in cave context. Be careful. The AI is powerful, but it makes mistakes. And you have to do the writing, which is of course why we’re here, because we love doing the writing. I know you can use AI sensibly in ways that won’t hurt you.
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