Four words in a Hank Green video\u2014\u201cI appreciate the pushback\u201d\u2014were enough to make some viewers suspect the voice of artificial intelligence, sparking fan backlash, prompting a public apology from Green and raising bigger questions about how AI is changing science communication. And it turns out that the line itself wasn\u2019t even the work of a chatbot!<\/p>\n
Green<\/a>, a prominent science communicator behind YouTube mainstays such as SciShow and Crash Course, said the line was his in an apology he initially posted on X. But the public reaction led him to acknowledge that he\u2019d been leaning heavily on ChatGPT while performing research for video scripts. On Reddit<\/a>, he later described his relationship with the tool as \u201cnot healthy\u201d adding, \u201cI\u2019ve been moving so fast that my own process isn\u2019t actually clear to me.\u201d He plans to make videos at a slower pace.<\/p>\n Green\u2019s admission points to a less visible way that AI is entering science communication: as a research assistant. On a tight deadline, a chatbot can quickly surface papers<\/a>, summarize unfamiliar material and help a communicator get oriented. That means it can start shaping someone\u2019s understanding<\/a> of a subject before the explaining even begins.<\/p>\n On supporting science journalism<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing<\/a>. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n The communicators interviewed for this story were much warier of letting AI write public-facing material than of using it behind the scenes for research or other tasks.<\/p>\n Kanta Dihal<\/a>, an associate professor of science communication at Imperial College London, says AI can help science communicators keep up with both the pressure to produce quickly and the amount of research that they have to sift through.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of the sheer volume of scientific output that there is, it\u2019s so hard to keep track of everything that goes on,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd so to have a system in place that can just do the filtering and the data trawling is nice, because, at a human pace, it\u2019s almost impossible to keep up with science.\u201d<\/p>\n Where communicators draw that line <\/a>varies. Raven Baxter<\/a>, a molecular biologist and science communicator who goes by \u201cRaven the Science Maven,\u201d says she uses AI for coding and for helping her understand her audience\u2019s interests. But she prefers to lean on other scientists rather than AI when she\u2019s trying to understand topics that are outside her expertise.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m hoping we can kind of rebel against it and get back to building community as science communicators and leaning on each other for information,\u201d Baxter says.<\/p>\n Joe Hanson<\/a>, a science communicator who hosts Be Smart on PBS, says he has also used AI to \u201cwade through the complexity of the various topics\u201d he covers. But he says whatever efficiency the technology offers cannot come at the expense of the relationship with the audience.<\/p>\n \u201cAll content creators depend on a trusted relationship with their audience<\/a>, but that\u2019s only amplified in science communication. It is our currency,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople turn to us not for entertainment or comedy but for a trusted interpreter of complex, hard-to-understand things about the universe. So if it\u2019s in your job description, you need to take it seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n Daphne Ippolito<\/a>, who researches natural language processing at Carnegie Mellon University, points to another concern once AI makes its way into the writing itself: what she calls the \u201chomogenization of language<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSomething I\u2019ve seen happening at various levels in academia, and I\u2019m sure outside of academia as well, is: when people start to rely on AI so much to help with their writing, they start talking and communicating like the AI. So they will say things or communicate things that are authentically them, but their authentic self and how they communicate has been influenced by their usage of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanson doesn\u2019t think there is one line every science communicator should draw. Different audiences may be comfortable with different uses of AI, he says, which leaves communicators to work out those boundaries with the people who trust them.<\/p>\n \u201cIf people are looking for a universal rule about what is acceptable and where, I think they will always find themselves wanting. But our duty is to our audiences,\u201d Hanson says. \u201cAnd we have seen that you must be clear and honest with your audience, listen to their reaction and use that as your answer on whether you\u2019re going to use this in your work.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s Time to Stand Up for Science<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/a>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts<\/a>, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters<\/a>, must-watch videos, challenging games<\/a>, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription<\/a>.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four words in a Hank Green video\u2014\u201cI appreciate the pushback\u201d\u2014were enough to make some viewers suspect the voice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,343,344,85,46,125],"class_list":["post-578937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}