Large language models (LLMs) will continue to radically change text production practices, and opinions vary concerning their adoption and application. Within research contexts, much of the conversation seems to concern how to apply LLMs to various ends, and to what degree their application can be useful.
But current efforts to apply LLMs, even those within limits deemed to be ethical, defensible, or simply practical, hop too quickly past the question about whether to use them to begin with. This is in part because of a failure to think at a scale commensurate with the change which LLMs imply.
Drawing on current critical and popular discourse about AI, and insights from Writing Centre practice and Media Studies scholarship, this REAL talk problematizes the use of LLM-generated text in research writing contexts. Is it perhaps best to advise our students not to use AI in their writing?
Lecturer
David Burke is a writing pedagogue and Head of Centre at the University of Oslo Academic Writing Centre. He has extensive experience in writing consultation and editing, research administration, and as a subject lecturer and teacher of academic writing.
Velkommen!