Many of the AI research tools below can help you find and synthesize the research conversation about a variety of topics. They can offer an alternative to creating lists of key terms to enter into library databases (and some of them can help you create a list of key terms to enter into library databases). There aren't yet any AI tools that search library databases, and, like library databases, no AI tool covers the entire research conversation, so vary the tools that you use to get a fuller understanding of your question.
| NAME | WHAT IT DOES | WHAT IT USES | IS IT FREE? |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Best for brainstorming, but when you activate "search the web," ChatGPT can use information from the internet to drive its responses. ChatGPT still frequently hallucinates sources, so always find the full text of anything you find here. | Publicly available information from the internet. | Freemium |
| Claude | Claude, created by Anthropic, is similar to ChatGPT: you can use it to help you brainstorm or analyze documents. | Publicly available information from the internet. | Freemium |
| Connected Papers | Connected Papers creates visualizations of the citational connections between research papers. | Semantic Scholar | Freemium |
| Consensus | Consensus uses LLMs to synthesize answers to research questions. | Semantic Scholar | Freemium |
| Elicit | Elicit searches and uses citational connections, then uses LLMs to synthesize answers to research questions. | Semantic Scholar | Freemium |
| Gemini Deep Research | Gemini Deep Research creates a research plan, searches the web, then reports on what it finds, showing its work along the way. | Freemium | |
| Inciteful | Inciteful is an open source visualization tool that shows the connections between research papers. Input one research paper, and Inciteful will help you find others. | Open Alex, Semantic Scholar, Crossref, OpenCitations | Free |
| NotebookLM | When you upload documents and link to specific websites, NotebookLM will create a basic summaries and study guides. | The documents you upload | Freemium |
| Petal | A reference manager with a built-in AI tool that answers questions about articles. | The documents you upload. | Freemium |
| Research Rabbit | Research Rabbit uses visualizations to map the citational relationship between papers. Connect Research Rabbit to a Zotero library to find papers you might have missed. | Open Alex, Semantic Scholar, and other databases | Free |
| scite | scite can help researchers develop their topics, create literature reviews, find related papers, and it contextualizes citations (supporting, contrasting, etc.) | A variety of places. See here. | No |
| Scholarcy | Scholarcy summarizes key points of articles into "summary cards" that you can annotate and review. | You must upload research papers yourself. | Freemium |
| Semantic Scholar | Semantic Scholar is an open database (much like Google Scholar), but it provides summaries of articles and links to related articles. | Semantic Scholar | Free |
Ithaka S+R maintains a Generative AI Product Tracker which lists genAI tools targeted to academics. The tracker lists genAI tools by name and provides additional information such as purchasing model, description, key features, and pros and cons/limitations. The tracker is updated frequently.