Event Summary
AIF hosted a two-day intensive, hands-on workshop that catered specifically to the requirements of social science scholars to help them with ethical research and writing using the new-age AI Tools. The workshop began with an insightful talk about the origin of AI, its evolution, its optimal and ethical uses in today’s digital age and so on. Professor Shandar Ahmad, Dr Neha Vinayak, Dr Sunita Reddy, Dr Sandesha Rayapa, and seven bright scholars with the appropriate technical expertise were the key resource persons for the online workshop.
The sessions were divided evenly into two days keeping in mind the various logical steps involved in the research process. For instance, the first AI Tools to be discussed were 𝙀𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙩 and 𝘿𝙤𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙚 that assist in searching for content on any particular subject, much needed during the initial phases of research. In the next session, AI tools such 𝙖𝙨 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝 𝙍𝙖𝙗𝙗𝙞𝙩, 𝙎𝙘𝙞𝙨𝙥𝙖𝙘𝙚 and 𝙄𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙈𝙖𝙥 were introduced for mind mapping, literature review and better conceptualisation of the area of research. This way, many AI tools were introduced such as 𝘾𝙤𝙡𝙖𝙗 (for analysing and visualisation of data, and for working collectively on projects as a team in real time), 𝙌𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙗𝙤𝙩 (for proofreading, grammar check, AI detection, translation etc.), 𝘾𝙖𝙣𝙫𝙖 (for basic graphic designing), 𝙕𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙤 (for referencing), 𝙂𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙞 (for making powerpoint presentations) and so on. The idea was to get the participants to start exploring the tools and eventually take help from some, whichever worked for them better. An underlying caveat while introducing every tool was the judicious and responsible use of AI with a general disclaimer that AI was not a substitute for the very creative human mind, and that no AI tool should create a condition of blind dependency on it.
About fifty five researchers, mostly students and some teachers, took part in the workshop from various fields of study such as sociology, anthropology, english, journalism etc. From Nagaland to Tamil Nadu, Odisha to Himachal Pradesh, they represented the length and breadth of the country. Further, the youngest participant was all of 17 years of age while the eldest participant was its reverse-number i.e. 71 years old! A
competition was organised towards the end to see if the participants were able to grasp the working of a few AI tools learnt through the workshop. More specifically, whether or not they were able to utilise them in
practice. Many submissions were awarded a ‘𝙎𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝘼𝙥𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣’ in the end.
