Three-quarters of researchers use artificial intelligence on a daily basis, but only a small proportion trust tech companies not to reuse their data without permission, a major poll of academics has found.
A new Oxford University Press (OUP) survey of more than 2,300 researchers found that 76% use some kind of AI tool in their research, with machine translation and chatbots being the most popular tools. , followed by AI-powered search engines and research tools. According to the report, AI is most commonly used to discover, edit, and summarize existing research.
However, a survey released on May 23 found that only 8% of researchers trust that AI companies will not use their research data without permission, and only 6% trust that AI companies will meet their data privacy and security needs.
The research comes amid widespread concern in the publishing industry that AI tools are lifting and reproducing scholarly documents in other formats without proper attribution, undermining long-established copyright and intellectual property norms for journals and scholars.
According to the OUP survey, around three in five people feel that the use of AI in research could undermine intellectual property, with the result that authors may not receive proper recognition for the use of their work.
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The survey, which drew responses from across disciplines, career stages and countries around the world, found that 25% of researchers believe AI will reduce the need for critical thinking and could undermine the development of these foundational skills in the future.
David Clarke, OUP's managing director of academic affairs, said the research would help university publishers “understand what researchers think about generative AI and its use in research”.
“As these technologies continue to develop rapidly, our priority is to work with researchers and the broader research community to set clear standards for how that evolution should take place,” Clark said of what he called a “rapidly evolving and complex field.”
“We are actively collaborating with companies developing LLMs. [large language models]”We are exploring options for both responsible development and use that not only improve research outcomes but also recognize the important role researchers have and must continue to play in an AI-enabled world,” he added.
The poll also asked researchers about their organisation's attitude towards AI, with almost half (46%) saying the organisation they work for does not have a policy on AI.
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