The Joy of Lit Reviews
I recently peer reviewed an article that cited an article by me that doesn’t exist. In fact, it contained several citations for articles that didn’t exist and mis-cited several articles that did. My slight sense of pride that I have enough of a research footprint for an AI to hallucinate an article by me quickly gave way to frustration. Different fields are different, but I have no desire to read work by folks who can’t be bothered to engage with the literature of the field to which they wish to contribute. Why would I care about analysis done by someone who hasn’t read the work they are purporting to build on?
Also - why am I out here worrying about not diving deep enough into the literature on my current article-in-progress (what if there’s ONE MORE IMPORTANT ARTICLE that exists that I never find because I stopped too early and the peer reviewers laugh at my hubris?) when there are folks who can’t even be bothered to double check their AI generated citations?
I often feel this way when I hear that other professors are using AI to grade, to create slides, to do lit reviews, to draft their papers, to write their e-mails. Am I wasting too much time? Would I be more prolific if I could just let go of my qualms and ethics and environmental concern? Maybe.
But also, I like creating slides, and doing lit reviews, and writing. I don’t love grading, but that’s mostly because I don’t like assessing value and I haven’t gotten good at ungrading yet. And AI has made it a nightmare lately. But how would I know how my students were doing and what we needed to work on if I didn’t grade things myself?
I understand that I’m not under the same publishing pressure that folks at higher output schools are, but also, I love the research process. I wouldn’t want to outsource the lit review process to AI, because I LOVE doing them. I love starting a project in a slightly new area and discovering all of the research out there that gives me new insight into a familiar topic. It’s my favorite part of the process to the point that I find it hard to force myself to stop and start, ya know, writing. (This could also have something to do with my imposter syndrome and my inability to trust my own analytical skills so I find it easier to look at what other people say, but that’s a subject for another post). Reading, writing, and summarizing past literature also helps me clarify my own analysis and makes me a better thinker.
AI defenders will say that AI can help us all be more efficient so we can do the things we actually care about. But, the history of technological development shows us that efficiency just leads to higher work expectations. And now we’re at a point where AIs are peer reviewing AI written research that is then read and summarized by AI. Because no one has any time. Who believes that this system will lead to lower work expectations? Having e-mail on my phone certainly hasn’t. This phenomenon has been studied across disciplines, but one of my favorite (or least favorite depending on how you look at it) examples is the history of “time saving kitchen appliances” that create more work by putting more and higher expectations on women throughout history.
To be sure, LLMS and machine learning are important breakthroughs for all sorts of scientific and analytical purposes, but the consumer facing gen AI being pushed on all of us to turn us into efficient output machines isn’t one of them. I know we individually have little power to change the system we’re in that puts undue expectations on our productivity and output, but I wish we could be clear-eyed and honest about why we all feel like we don’t have enough time to do the work we’re now being pushed to offload to co-pilot and chatgpt. Our tech overlords aren’t trying to make our lives easier.
Speaking of breakthrough technology being pushed on us in questionable ways, last year I started a new project about digital body positivity in the so-called “age of GLP-1s.” It has been so much fun digging into the literature of social media, fat studies, affect, authenticity, and post-feminism, and I don’t like being told that reading it myself and summarizing it myself and picking out my favorite quotes myself is an inefficient waste of my time. Maybe it is. I could work faster. And I’m sure there are many who hate the process. But, in an era where higher ed is crumbling and my job is becoming more and more demoralizing, I’d like to hold on to the parts of it that bring me joy.