Mya Poe (Northeastern University) and Dylan B Dryer (University of Maine) highlight the risks of using generative AI to create literature reviews. The authors explain that these tools cannot access many papers published between the 1990s and the early 2020s, which results in a “missing middle” to the resulting survey of scholarship. With this gap in information about how the field advanced during the “missing middle,” the literature review cannot demonstrate the foundational understanding necessary to meaningfully inform further research. They conclude by asserting that authors who outsource literature reviews to generative AI will miss the opportunity to advance knowledge in their field.
Chronicle of Higher Ed (Acct Req)
