The Symposium titled “Generative Artificial Intelligence in Scientific Studies and Education” was organized by the Dean’s Office of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Üsküdar University under the coordination of the Department of Artificial Intelligence Engineering. During the symposium, the development process of artificial intelligence and the areas in which it contributes to academic careers were discussed comprehensively. In the program, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences Prof. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin drew attention to the increasingly widespread use of artificial intelligence and emphasized ethical and conscious use. Head of the Department of Artificial Intelligence Engineering Asst. Prof. Nuri Bingöl explained the working mechanism and historical development of generative artificial intelligence and addressed risks such as hallucinations, data bias, and security concerns. Applications such as NotebookLM, SciSpace, Turnitin, Google AI Studio, Canva, Consensus, and Jenni AI were also introduced during the program.
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The event, held at the İbni Sina Auditorium of the NP Health Campus of Üsküdar University, was attended by Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences Prof. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin, Vice Dean and Head of the Department of Artificial Intelligence Engineering Asst. Prof. Nuri Bingöl, graduate students Kerem Tekin and Furkan Karataş, along with academics and students.
Prof. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin: “Saying do not use it is not correct…”
The opening speech of the event was delivered by Prof. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences. Drawing attention to the development of artificial intelligence and its presence in academic life, Ertekin said: “There have been major changes both in the field of science and in daily life. One of them was the introduction of computers into our lives during our time. Another is the use of artificial intelligence today. It appears that it will be used very widely and will continue to develop. It is not possible to foresee its limits. Everyone has started using it. Therefore, we are probably all using it, but we organized such training at least to provide basic knowledge and awareness. With the more efficient, faster, and more rational use of artificial intelligence, tasks that normally take us a great deal of time will be completed in much shorter periods. In thesis studies and academic articles, the use of artificial intelligence is now being questioned. You look at plagiarism rates and see 5 percent, but artificial intelligence assistance reaches 95 percent. There is such a large gap between them. Saying do not use it is not correct. What matters is using it rationally, properly, and ethically. One of the main purposes of this meeting is exactly this.”
Following the opening speech, Head of the Department of Artificial Intelligence Engineering Asst. Prof. Nuri Bingöl delivered an informative presentation.
Asst. Prof. Nuri Bingöl: “A technology that increases our productivity”
Drawing attention to how artificial intelligence significantly increases production speed, Bingöl said: “Generative AI is a technology that increases our productivity. A task that a person could complete in three or six months can sometimes be delivered within minutes or hours. It provides extraordinary speed and can be used in research, scientific studies, and academic articles. However, there are certain limitations. Problems arise if artificial intelligence usage reaches 95 percent. It can be used as an assistant and support can be received during literature reviews. The Council of Higher Education also allows this. However, publishing a text written by artificial intelligence as if you wrote it yourself constitutes plagiarism.”
“Artificial intelligence is not a new concept”
Emphasizing that artificial intelligence is not a new concept as commonly assumed, Bingöl said: “Artificial intelligence has progressed very rapidly especially since 2022. However, it is not a new concept. It was first introduced in the 1950s. Alan Turing raised the question ‘Can machines think?’ and is considered the father of artificial intelligence. The term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ was first used at the Dartmouth conference organized under the leadership of MIT in 1956. In 1957, Lisp emerged as an artificial intelligence programming language. Today, languages such as Python, R, and Julia are used. Some algorithms date back as far as the 1700s and 1800s.”
Training, fine tuning, and production
Explaining the working mechanism of artificial intelligence through three main stages, Bingöl said: “There are three fundamental stages here: training, fine tuning, and production. First, the model is trained and most of the data is used at this stage. Since large computing power is required, models are generally offered as pre trained models by organizations such as OpenAI and Google. Later, during the Fine-Tuning stage, the model focuses on specific tasks. Human evaluation is carried out through Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback and the model is adjusted accordingly. The final stage is Deploy, meaning production and continuous improvement. With the Retrieval Augmented Generation method, the provided information can be made more customized.”
“One of the biggest problems is hallucination”
Bingöl emphasized that alongside the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence, there are also serious risks: “One of the biggest problems is hallucination. The model may present incorrect information as if it were real, cite fabricated sources, or make historical errors. Therefore, outputs must definitely be checked. Data bias is also an important issue because the model depends on the data it was trained on. There are limits to originality and outputs may become repetitive. Due to the black box problem, the internal functioning of the system is not fully known. There are also serious concerns regarding security, deepfakes, data privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. For this reason, experts particularly emphasize that personal data should not be shared with systems such as ChatGPT.”
Artificial intelligence applications introduced
Following the presentation, Bingöl introduced the NotebookLM application to participants and provided information about its areas of use.
The functioning and academic role of SciSpace, AI Detector, and Turnitin applications used for artificial intelligence detection were also shared in detail.
Graduate student Kerem Tekin introduced Google AI Studio and Canva applications and presented practical usage examples.
Graduate student Furkan Karataş explained the Consensus application used in literature review processes and the Jenni AI platform, which contributes to the postdoctoral reference creation process.
The program concluded with a group photograph.