ChatGPT and Social Science Research in Higher Education

Abstract

In recent times, advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have made promises for major technological developments. AI has broadened the scope of computer applications, which has expanded to understand real-world problems. ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence tool, has further gained popularity in a short span of time. In the f ield of education and research, ChatGPT is used widely as a tool to ease out prominent research tasks like the generation of problems, literature review, providing problem statements, etc. A large portion of the research community has been using this tool without any reasonable restriction or any mechanism of checks and balances, further fostering a threat of unethical research practices. However, is the usage of ChatGPT de-burdening researchers, or is it suppressing creativity? Will the usage of ChatGPT contribute to research in higher education, or will it be detrimental? This paper aims to understand the impact of ChatGPT on social science research in higher education. With the aim of understanding the concept of artificial intelligence and ChatGPT, this paper locates the potential challenges which are caused by using the chatbot in the field of education and research.