ChatGPT's Role in Gerontology Research

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Artificial Intelligence in Science

Background:

• Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) and other chatbots are increasingly used across disciplines, including biomedical sciences.
• There is a growing need to understand the application of ChatGPT in advancing gerontology research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate ChatGPT's responses to gerontology research questions.
• To brainstorm recommendations for utilizing ChatGPT in the field of gerontology.

Main Methods:

• Multidisciplinary researchers formed four topical groups: gero-clinical science, basic geroscience, informatics, and gero-technology.
• ChatGPT was prompted with theory-, methods-, and interpretation-based questions within each group.
• Responses were rated for accuracy and completeness using standardized scales.

Main Results:

• ChatGPT responses were generally rated as accurate across all groups.
• Completeness of responses was rated lower, with the exception of the informatics group, who found them highly comprehensive.

Conclusions:

• ChatGPT demonstrates accuracy in depicting major gerontological research concepts.
• Researchers must critically appraise the completeness of AI-generated responses.
• ChatGPT can potentially aid in summarizing evidence, identifying knowledge gaps, and fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration in gerontology.