Several years ago, some eagle-eyed readers of scientific papers noticed an unusual trend—an increase in the number of abstracts using certain words. The terms, including “delve,” “realm,” “evolving landscape,” and more, were suddenly appearing more often than they used to.
Researchers analyzed the abstracts and compared them to abstracts written just a few years earlier, before the widespread availability of artificial intelligence large language model chatbots. They came to the conclusion that abstracts written by AI were more likely to use words from a list of around 20 favorites than regular human speech. The question was, why? If the models were trained on conventional writing, how did a preference for words such as “delve” creep in?
Host Flora Lichtman talks with Dr. Tom Juzek and Dr. Zina Ward of Florida State University, who set out to try to understand the origins of some of AI’s favorite words.
Further Reading
- Read Florida State University’s report on our guests’ AI language model study.
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Our AI For STEM Education collection includes an activity to help kids investigate simple chatbots and gain insights into the inner workings of large language models as well as machine learning and artificial intelligence. Resources at the bottom of the activity cover the history of chatbots, ethical considerations, and limitations of AI. |
Segment Guests
Tom Juzek
Dr. Tom Juzek is an assistant professor of computational linguistics in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.
Zina Ward
Dr. Zina Ward is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.
Segment Transcript
The transcript of this segment is being processed. It will be available early next week.
Meet the Producers and Host
About Charles Bergquist
As Science Friday’s director and senior producer, Charles Bergquist channels the chaos of a live production studio into something sounding like a radio program. Favorite topics include planetary sciences, chemistry, materials, and shiny things with blinking lights.
About Flora Lichtman
Flora Lichtman is a host of Science Friday. In a previous life, she lived on a research ship where apertivi were served on the top deck, hoisted there via pulley by the ship’s chef.