GenAI Tools for Research - AI Comparison Page

Project Overview

In response to the ever expanding and changing AI landscape, requests were made to the University of Victoria Libraries to create an online resource that showcased and compared AI-tools for research. As their GenAI and Digital Literacy Intern, I was tasked with researching, compiling, and implementing this information on their public library guide. 

My Approach

First, I conducted preliminary research of popular GenAI and AI tools that are used in university environments and research contexts. In addition, I also investigated various methods in which the information could be presented (i.e. wikipage, an embedded database, etc.) but through discussion with my colleagues, decided to put the information into the library's Libguide for maximum efficiency, ease of use, and future editing.

I organized my findings with the supervision from related library staff (including liaison librarians and library executives), ranking and grouping the tools based on their popularity and use cases in research (chatbots, finding articles, source analysis, etc.). During the implementation phase, I chose to showcase the AI tools via a tabbed format, so that users could 1) efficiently find all information in a single place, and 2) easily compare the pros and cons of the tools to each other, to make informed decisions on their AI use.

Challenges I Faced

With the seemingly infinite amount of AI tools available today, I had difficulties choosing what factors I should consider when prioritizing some tools over others. For instance, should I prioritize a tool that is fully accessible, or a tool that has limited free usage but has stronger security? Ultimately, judgements about what tools to include came down to popularity, security, and novelty (i.e. Deepseek was not considered due to security concerns, Research Rabbit provides a unique visualization method, etc.)

Through this project I also struggled with finding information about the tools, due to it being not publicly available or hard to find. For example, some tools did not mention where they sourced their articles, while some tools were not clear about what was free and what was paid. While these tools can be helpful, they are ultimately consumable products, and so it is important to explore and understand what each tool has to offer to make the best informed decisions.

Webpage Preview

You can view the GenAI Tools for Research webpage below, or view it directly on UVic's Libguide website.