There is more to artificial intelligence, its capabilities, and how AI could support your learning and studies than generative AI.
There are times when generative AI isn't appropriate for your topic or the assessment you have at hand, but there are other ways you could enhance your learning using non-generative AI tools.
Non-generative AI, often known as traditional AI or narrow AI, doesn't create new content. Instead, non-generative AI tools tend to focus on pattern recognition, classification, and prediction tasks based on existing datasets. For example, imagine a database that uses natural language processing to extract key terms out of your research question, automatically applies synonyms to those key terms, and then produces a list of relevant literature for your research question - all you have to do is type in your research question.
The capabilities of artificial intelligence and its everyday applications are expanding all the time. In just a few years the commercially available artificial intelligence tools have taken huge leaps in what tasks they're able to complete and the standard they can fulfil requests and automation to. The list of what AI can do for you is endless and the only limit, really, is your creativity (and academic policies of what is ethical...)
Click on the dropdown menu options below to learn more about different tasks AI could help you with!
| Name of tool | What does it do? | Access models | Links to help and support |
|---|---|---|---|
| LucidSpark | Whiteboards, mindmaps, generate ideas from prompts, organise sticky notes into themes, summarise notes | Free or paid - max. 3 boards and basic collaborative AI available on the free plan | Collaborative AI demo |
| Miro | Build and expand on ideas, organise and summarise notes, create diagrams from prompts, turn brainstorms into briefs or insights into reports | Free or paid - max. 3 boards and 10 AI credits per month available on the free plan | Master Miro in 3 minutes |
| Whimsical | Plan, create, and manage projects, create mindmaps, wireframes, or flowcharts with AI support | Free or paid - max. 3 team boards and 10 guests & 100 AI actions | Get to know Whimsical |
| Name of tool | What does it do? | Access models | Links to help and support |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notion | Project boards, create calendars and task lists, track statuses, store documents, make notes, create tables and flowcharts. The AI features support brainstorming and finding information from uploads and notes. There are thousands of templates and the main con of Notion is that you could easily get lost in it if you're not careful. | Free or paid - some limitations to the AI elements on the free plan, but if you sign up with your student email, there are discounts and free trials for Notion AI | Get started with Notion AI |
| Obsidian | Organise and store notes and files, create links between your project files and visualise them with graphs and canvases. This is a quick to learn platform that can be super helpful for project management - it is not strictly AI but it integrates with various AI platforms and plugins. | Free or paid - the paid versions offer syncing across devices and publication rights as well as priority support | Learn how to use Obsidian with AI |
| Monday | Manage projects and tasks, create data dashboards, track progress and time. The AI features allow extracting information from files, summarising notes and files, and organising tasks | Free or paid - max. 3 boards and the AI features are only a trial in the free version of Monday. | Get started with AI blocks |
| Goblin Tools | This is a simple collection of tools that can break down big tasks or brain dumps into manageable steps and to-do lists, and helps you estimate the time tasks will take. | Free, no sign-up required | Get started with Goblin Tools |
Health students note: if you are completing a systematic literature search, talk to your module leader or a Librarian about using AI tools to support your literature search and especially about how to report any articles found via AI tools on your PRISMA chart!
| Name of tool | What does it do? | Access models | Links to help and support |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elicit | Search for literature with just your research question, select or upload papers, ask questions about them from Elicit's built-in AI or use it to create extraction tables. You can view sources for the AI-generated answers to confirm the tool has understood the paper correctly | Free or paid - summarise or chat about 4 papers at a time, extract data from up to 20 papers a month | How to use Elicit for a literature review |
| SciSpace | Brainstorm research topics, search for literature, select or upload papers to summarise and ask questions about them, trace citations backwards and forwards in time, create extraction tables from papers. Same as Elicit, the tool will highlight the parts of the paper it uses for answers | Free or paid - the paid version limits the number of AI chats with papers, max. 5 columns in extraction tables, and doesn't allow exports | SciSpace: a powerful AI research tool |
| Semantic Scholar | AI-powered literature database that provide TL;DR (too long, didn't read) summaries of papers, classifies citations to helpful categories, and automatically applies meaning and synonyms to your search terms without the need for complicated advanced searches. You can also ask questions about selected papers | Free, no sign-up required - to save papers or set up automated feeds you will need a free account | AI for researchers demo |
| Rayyan | This is a systematic reviews tool useful for managing, screening, and speeding up reviews. Create keywords for inclusion and exclusion, automatically detect duplicates, store screening decisions, and export results. The AI features focus mainly on duplicate detection and computing ratings for inclusion likelihood, but you can use this tools with or without the AI elements. | Free or paid - max. 3 active reviews, the paid features also include auto-generation of PRISMA diagrams, PICO highlighting, and auto-resolution for duplicates |
(the long video is for the old interface, or you can find a series of shorter videos for the new interface) |
| Name of tool | What does it do? | Access models | Links to help and support |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scholarcy | Upload papers to summarise them and create flashcards from the information, make notes that you can export along with the flashcards | Free or paid - limited number of summaries and only export one flashcard at a time | Scholarcy quick start guide |
| ChatPDF | Upload papers to summarise and ask questions about them, create mock questions based on information from the papers. You can chat about multiple PDFs at once to draw connections between them | Free, no sign-up required | AI for researchers demo |
| PDF.ai | Upload papers and chat "with" them - ask questions, summarise, make notes - the answers are backed up by extracts from the uploaded files | Free or paid - with the free version you can only upload one document at a time and get up to 100 questions a month | Review of PDF.ai |
| Jenny.ai |
Jenni is a comprehensive AI research assistant, but for the purposes of this guide we're going to focus on the "chat to your research" function - upload papers and ask question about them to understand them better. Jenni can do a lot, but we'd recommend you don't use the writing features to ensure you're using AI to enhance your learning rather than replacing it. |
Free or paid - the paid features enable more AI editing and writing, which we don't recommend using for academic study | AllAboutAI review of Jenni |
| Name of tool | What does it do? | Access models | Links to help and support |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research Rabbit | Search for or upload papers to create graphs of connections and discover related and cited papers (backards and forwards in time or simply related). Create collections of papers and plug gaps in your literature reviews | Free, requires an account | How to use Research Rabbit |
| Connected Papers | Search for papers to create visualisations of similar papers in the field, discover prior and derivative works - these are not strictly citation trees, because the relation between the listed works is "bibliographic coupling" meaning they use the same sources or cite the same source, increasing the likelihood of their relevance to your research | Free or paid - the free version allows 2 graphs a month without an account or 5 a month with an account | First time user's guide to Connected Papers |
| LitMaps | Discover papers with a database powered by AI, visualise research fields and the connections between various papers to build a comprehensive picture of a research topic | Free or paid - the free version allows 20 inputs in discovery mode and 2 Litmaps a month with 100 articles per map | Make literature reviews easy with LitMaps |
| Name of tool | What does it do? | Access models | Links to help and support |
|---|---|---|---|
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NOTE: Always be careful with AI editing and proofreading tools! You should check that the AI hasn't changed the content or meaning of your writing, because you are still responsible for the accuracy and reliability of the information you present in your work. Academic writing is also an important skill that is often included in your marking criteria, so make sure you're only using AI as a "second pair of eyes" to check grammar and typos and improve the readability of your work - also note that because these tools aren't human, they don't have the same understanding of nuance or context so although they are mostly very useful, they can still make incorrect recommendations! Consider, also, the contents of your work and where it will go or be stored after you upload it. Does it contain sensitive or personal information? Who will have access to it? Will it be used to further train AI models or tools? Does that matter to you? |
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| Quillbot | Check your grammar and sentence structures, complete with explanations of common errors you're making and advanced writing suggestions. Do note that using every suggestion from Quillbot often strips your work of your own individual voice so we would suggest manually correcting the errors Quillbot highlights | Free or paid, free version only corrects basic grammar and typos | Quillbot usage experience |
| Grammarly | The AI features of Grammarly allow users to input prompts that will streamline the proofreading and editing process, make suggestions for not only grammar but also adjusting tone and adapting your writing to your audience. Do note that Grammarly is especially guilty of changing the content and meaning of your words even in the basic proofreading function | Free or paid - free version allows you to correct mistakes and see your tone (but not adjust it) and provides 100 AI prompts | Grammarly AI review |
| Hemingway editor | Proofread your work for grammar errors, typos, and complicated sentences. The tool colour-codes your work at sentence level, suggests alternative words, and highlights where you are using "weakeners" like think or believe | Free or paid - the paid version mainly provides access to the AI writing features, which we wouldn't recommend you use in your academic work anyway | Includes an in-built tutorial in the bottom left of the screen |
| Wordvice | Proofread your work for grammar, typos, and punctuation errors, get suggestions for vocabulary. You can also select the type of document you're working on to improve and tailor the suggestions you're getting | Free or paid - the free version is capped at 500 words per submission | Introducing Wordvice proofreader |
| Name of tool | What does it do? | Access models | Links to help and support |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anki | Create flashcard templates and decks, which utilise active recall testing and spaced repetition to improve information retention. Limited customisation options and can take a while to set up, but once built the effect is invaluable | Free but requires download | Comperehensive support documentation |
| Knowt | Upload PowerPoints or PDF to instantly turn them into flashcards, create practice tests and exams from the flashcards, take live lecture notes that you can automatically turn into flashcards | Free | Knowt's support documentation for the study mode |
| Jungle | Use AI to upload a document such as lecture slide deck or a PDF or even a YouTube video link which Jungle.ai will turn into practice questions and quizzes in seconds | Free or paid - the free version is limited to 15 times per month and 40 pages / 40 minutes per document (very cheap annual subscription) | Deepdive into Jungle AI |
Learn how to use AI ethically in your studies
If you have been through this guide in order, you will now be familiar with both generative and non-generative AI tools and you might be starting to think about how you can apply those skills in practice. Before we get into the practical exercises, we would suggest you take a moment to reflect on how you can do that in ways that are efficient and effective but also ethical.
In the next section of this guide we will first break down what ethical AI use really means in an academic context and then we will take you through some options for acknowledging and referencing your AI use to ensure you're being clear and transparent about how AI has been used in your work so that you don't fall foul of academic integrity policies.