ChatGPT Can’t Eat a Sandwich—But It Did Help With My Search Terms

To round out some personal injury quantum research, I booked space at the Taylor Family Digital Library a few weeks ago for access to PubMed and other databases to locate studies or reports related to the fact scenario.

While I may be excellent at legal research, I am no medical librarian. The unfamiliar PubMed search interface was enough to have me stumbling around for longer than I care to admit and with the clock ticking, I needed a time efficient strategy:

ChatGPT + Controlled Vocabulary

I used AI to help me generate terms and explain them in plain language. I then took those keywords and concepts to build my search using PubMed's controlled vocabulary. The result sets were targeted, manageable and I had an understanding of how I got there.

Sidebar: GPT also offered sample Boolean search strings for me to copy and paste into PubMed. Cute, but totally unhelpful.

The moral of the story here is that AI can be a powerful time saver when used to supplement tried and true methodology, not replace it.

Generating search terms is one of my favourite ways to use it, especially in areas of research I have limited practical experience, or if I'm struggling to remember all the different variations of general terms like "agreement" or "contract."

Finally, you might be wondering what a photo of mountains has to do with AI + research.

The answer is: Absolutely nothing.

Consider it a friendly reminder to take a Monday off every once and a while. Get outside and eat a sandwich with your buddies, preferably somewhere (like here) out of service and beyond the reach of AI.