Summary:
Approximately half of scientific journals, as well as major publishers such as Springer-Nature or Taylor & Francis, prohibit the use Large Language Models (LLMs) based chatbots. Other editors and publishers, recognizing the benefits of using them, the impracticality of banning them and the undeclared extent of their use, advocate for the normalization of an increasingly sophisticated tool. Scientists ask for a rigorous debate, which should conclude in a reasoned and ethical harmonization between technological improvement and research integrity. This paper critically analyses the use of ChatGPT in scientific research writing, in relation with authorship and hybrid articles (with chatbots). Combining philosophical and technological analysis, we realize a comprehensive literature review and we question if chatbots can improve science. We find a similar discussion in Plato’s criticisms of writing, contained in the Phaedrus. We will explore Plato's myth of Theuth and Thamus as a means of providing insight and approaches to the use of ChatGPT on research. From an interdisciplinary perspective, we conclude that LLM-chatbots cannot be considered as authors in a scientific context and hybrid articles may only be acceptable under certain conditions, with a human conceptualization and hypothesis, the creation itself by a human, with clear specification of where and for what purpose an LLM based chatbot has been used.
Keywords: LLMs based chatbots, ChatGPT; Authorship; Hybrid articles; Ethics on Research; Social Sciences.
Accepted for publishing.
Citation:
R. Calderón, And Plato met ChatGPT: an ethical reflection on the use of chatbots in scientific research writing, with a particular focus on the social sciences. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.
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