Using AI in Literature Review (a rationalization)

While there are no prohibitions on using AI (that I’m aware of) in the grant currently funding my work, I wanted to be transparent about my use of ChatGPT in the literature survey deliverable. While I can’t afford not to use AI at this point (more on that below), happy to respond to any stakeholders’ concerns this may raise and address them if possible.

Explanation/Excuse

Upon starting the literature survey, I quickly realized that what I’d promised in the grant, without using AI, would take a lot longer than originally estimated... In particular, a literature survey covering all of the relevant domains could easily take several months. On top of other deliverables.

I ended up getting roughly $3,705 in funding from the TEC’s Gitcoin Grant round. And I’ve spent ~31 hrs so far (breakdown below). Currently that’s ~$119/hr (yay!). But guestimating total hours without using AI, I’m looking at below minimum wage. Which is not financially sustainable for me…

Hours breakdown (so far)
Hours breakdown (so far)

So, am using ChatGPT for parts of the literature survey. Unfortunately, that means sources aren’t cited :( I believe I’m still technically meeting the deliverable requirements, and delivering good value, for the following reasons:

  • ChatGPT is probably doing higher quality work than I could have, at least in summarizing topics generally. I’m also leveraging several years of relevant experience (including reading a large number of articles) in composing prompts, filtering/structuring material, etc.

  • For each section, I’m augmenting general summaries with knowledge and insights gained from ~5 yrs experience working on relevant projects. Namely SourceCred, a valuation/reputation protocol utilizing the PageRank algorithm, and BridgeSpace Commons, a physical community space in Portland I volunteered at most of last year that experimented with decentralized governance. I believe this ‘alpha’ should be generally valuable to those working on place-based reputation

I’m working on the literature survey now, and hoping to have it finished in the next 2-3 weeks. If you have thoughts or opinions on this, please reach out! I can’t work below minimum wage, but may be able to direct my efforts towards stakeholders’ needs.