Summarize Articles: Free AI tools for Research Paper Understanding

Andy Stapleton
8 Jan 202408:05

TLDRThis video introduces two free AI tools, 'Size.Space' and 'Explain Paper', that simplify the process of understanding academic papers without subscription fees. 'Size.Space' offers features like literature review, data extraction, and AI co-pilot reading, while 'Explain Paper' provides unlimited explanations for highlighted text. Both tools help users quickly summarize and interact with complex research, saving time and enhancing comprehension.

Takeaways

  • 💰 Many AI tools for reading academic papers require a subscription, which can be expensive.
  • 🆓 Two free AI tools are recommended for summarizing and understanding academic papers: 'Size.Space' and 'Explain Paper'.
  • 🔍 'Size.Space' offers features like literature review, data extraction from PDFs, AI co-pilot reading, and paraphrasing.
  • 📚 'Size.Space' has a limit on the number of uses, but it's useful for quick summaries and skimming through papers.
  • 🤖 'AI co-pilot' in 'Size.Space' can answer questions, summarize, and explain highlighted text within a paper.
  • 📝 'Explain Paper' provides unlimited explanations and follow-up questions without additional features.
  • 📑 'Explain Paper' simplifies complex academic language to various levels of understanding, from a middle schooler to an expert.
  • 📈 Both tools save time by summarizing and interacting with the text, allowing for a deeper dive into specific sections of a paper.
  • 📘 'Size.Space' and 'Explain Paper' are currently free, but this may change as companies often introduce fees.
  • 🔑 Starting with an abstract and skimming the paper, then using these tools for unclear sections, is an efficient workflow.
  • 🔗 The presenter also offers an 'Academic Effus' course with additional resources for understanding academic papers.

Q & A

  • What is the main issue discussed in the video regarding AI tools for reading academic papers?

    -The main issue discussed is the cost associated with many AI tools that claim to help with reading academic papers, as they often require a subscription fee which the speaker finds too expensive.

  • What are the two free AI tools recommended in the video for understanding research papers?

    -The two free AI tools recommended are 'Size.Space' and 'Explain Paper', which offer features like summarizing papers, extracting data from PDFs, and providing explanations for highlighted text.

  • What feature of Size.Space does the speaker particularly appreciate?

    -The speaker appreciates the 'Extract Data from PDFs' feature in Size.Space, which allows users to upload a PDF and receive a summarized abstract and conclusions.

  • How does the AI co-pilot in Size.Space assist users in understanding papers?

    -The AI co-pilot in Size.Space assists by allowing users to upload a paper, highlight sections they want explained, and then ask for a summary or explanation of the highlighted text.

  • What is the process of using the AI co-pilot feature in Size.Space?

    -The process involves uploading a paper, highlighting sections of interest, asking for a summary or explanation, and then receiving a simplified explanation of the highlighted text.

  • What does the speaker suggest as a good starting point when reading a paper with AI tools?

    -The speaker suggests starting with the abstract of the paper and then using the AI tool to highlight and get explanations for sections that are unclear during skimming.

  • How does Explain Paper differ from the AI co-pilot feature in Size.Space?

    -Explain Paper offers similar functionality to the AI co-pilot but is completely free and does not have the same limitations on usage as Size.Space.

  • What is the speaker's opinion on the current state of AI tools for academic papers?

    -The speaker believes that the current state of AI tools is beneficial but warns that these offerings can change as companies often start to charge for services that were initially free.

  • What advice does the speaker give for effectively using AI tools to understand academic papers?

    -The speaker advises to always start with the abstract, skim the paper, highlight unclear sections, and use AI tools to ask questions and get explanations for those sections.

  • How does the speaker describe the process of getting explanations from Explain Paper?

    -The process involves highlighting a section of the paper in Explain Paper, choosing an explanation level (e.g., high schooler), and then clicking 'explain' to receive a simplified explanation of the highlighted text.

  • What is the speaker's final recommendation for those looking to understand academic papers using AI tools?

    -The speaker recommends checking out Size.Space and Explain Paper, as they are currently free and effective tools for summarizing and explaining academic papers.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Frustrations with Subscription-based Academic Tools

The speaker expresses dissatisfaction with the current landscape of AI tools for reading academic papers, which often require subscription fees. They mention several services like OpenReads, Chat PDF, Humata, Lateral, Paper Brain, and Unriddle, criticizing their pricing models. The speaker then introduces two free AI tools, Size.Space and Explain Paper, which offer features such as literature review, data extraction, AI co-pilot reading, and paraphrasing without the need for a subscription.

05:02

🔍 Utilizing AI for Efficient Academic Reading

The speaker demonstrates how to use Size.Space for extracting data from PDFs and obtaining summaries and conclusions from academic papers. They also show how to use the AI co-pilot feature to ask questions and get explanations for highlighted text. The speaker emphasizes the tool's usefulness for skimming and understanding peer-reviewed articles. Additionally, they introduce Explain Paper as an alternative for unlimited explanations without subscription fees, showcasing its ability to simplify complex academic content for various reading levels.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡AI tools

AI tools refer to software applications that utilize artificial intelligence to perform tasks more efficiently. In the context of the video, AI tools are used to assist in reading and understanding academic papers. They offer features like summarization, data extraction, and even asking questions to the text. The script mentions several AI tools, emphasizing the need for free alternatives to the ones that require a subscription.

💡Subscription

A subscription model is a business approach where customers pay a periodic fee to access a service or product. In the video, the speaker criticizes AI tools that require a subscription fee, citing costs as a barrier to using these services for academic purposes. The script lists various tools with their respective subscription prices.

💡Academic papers

Academic papers are scholarly articles written by researchers to report original research and are typically published in academic journals. The video's theme revolves around using AI tools to facilitate the understanding and analysis of these papers. The script discusses the difficulty of reading academic papers and the utility of AI in simplifying this process.

💡Size Space

Size Space is one of the free AI tools mentioned in the script for reading academic papers. It offers features like literature review, data extraction from PDFs, AI co-pilot reading, and paraphrasing. The script demonstrates how to use Size Space to extract summaries and conclusions from academic papers.

💡Extract data from PDFs

This feature allows users to upload a PDF file and have the AI tool extract key information or summaries from it. In the script, the speaker shows how Size Space can be used to quickly obtain a summary of a paper by uploading it, which is useful for getting an overview without reading the entire document.

💡AI co-pilot

The AI co-pilot is a feature within Size Space that assists users in reading and understanding academic papers by answering questions about the content, providing explanations, and summarizing text. The script describes how this tool can be used to interact with the text of a paper for a deeper understanding.

💡Summarization

Summarization in the context of the video refers to the process of condensing a large text, such as an academic paper, into a shorter, more digestible format while retaining the main points. The script highlights the importance of summarization in quickly grasping the essence of research papers.

💡Explain Paper

Explain Paper is another free tool mentioned in the script that provides explanations for highlighted parts of an academic paper. It allows users to request explanations at different levels of complexity, from a middle schooler to an expert. The tool helps in breaking down complex concepts into simpler terms.

💡Highlighting

Highlighting, as used in the script, is the act of marking text to draw attention to it. Both Size Space and Explain Paper use this feature to focus on specific parts of a paper for summarization, questioning, or seeking explanations, which aids in targeted reading and comprehension.

💡Abstract

An abstract is a brief summary at the beginning of an academic paper that presents the research topic, methods, results, and conclusions. The script suggests starting with the abstract when reading a paper and using AI tools to explain it for better initial understanding.

💡Follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are additional queries asked to gain further clarity or information. In the context of the video, AI co-pilot and Explain Paper allow users to ask follow-up questions about the paper's content, enhancing the interactive learning experience.

Highlights

Reading academic papers can be a daunting task, but AI tools can assist in the process without the need for a subscription.

Many AI tools for reading academic papers come at a cost, such as OpenReads, Chat PDF, Humata, Lateral, Paper Brain, and Unriddle.

The author introduces two free AI tools for academic paper understanding: Synthesis and Explain Paper.

Synthesis offers features like literature review, data extraction from PDFs, AI co-pilot reading, and paraphrasing.

Data extraction in Synthesis allows users to upload a PDF and receive a summarized abstract and conclusions.

AI co-pilot in Synthesis enables users to ask questions about highlighted text and request explanations or related papers.

Explain Paper provides a free alternative to Synthesis, offering unlimited highlight explanations and follow-up questions.

Explain Paper simplifies complex academic text into understandable explanations for different levels of expertise.

The author suggests starting with the abstract of a paper and using AI tools to delve deeper into areas of uncertainty.

Both Synthesis and Explain Paper are currently free, offering significant time savings in academic paper reading.

The author emphasizes the importance of not having to read entire papers by using these AI tools for summaries and explanations.

Highlighting and asking questions in the AI co-pilot or Explain Paper helps in understanding specific parts of a paper.

The video provides a workflow for reading academic articles using AI tools that is both efficient and cost-free.

The author mentions the potential for these free tools to change or require payment in the future.

The video also discusses the author's course 'Effus Academia' with additional resources for academic paper reading.

The author invites viewers to check out another video discussing the impact of AI tools on traditional academic papers.