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Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

Jul 10, 2023 • 12 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X

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ChatGPT's latest update — Code Interpreter — is a powerful data assistant.

But many folks still don't know about it.

Here's how to use Code Interpreter to sort and visualize data in an Excel sheet.

A video tutorial:

To use Code Interpreter, you will need to enable it first.

Go to your ChatGPT account's Settings and click on Beta Features. Then enable Code Interpreter.

Next open a new chat and click on GPT-4 and select Code Interpreter.

I am uploading an Excel sheet to ChatGPT.

It contains names of hundreds of speakers who participated in the Karachi Literature Festival from 2010-2018.

Now if I want to know many times a speaker participated, it'll take me a lot of time and effot.

But with Code Interpreter you can do in seconds.

Before uploading the Excel sheet, it's a good idea to prime ChatGPT.

Ask it if it can help you analyze data in an Excel sheet. It will say yes.

Upload the Excel sheet and let ChatGPT process it.

Tell ChatGPT a bit about the data in the Excel sheet and ask your question.

I asked it to give me names of ten speakers who appeared most often during the period. And it answered in seconds.

Want to learn how to use AI-powered apps to supercharge your academic writing?

I have a complete tutorial (250+ slides) for you.

It's being used by 2,200+ academics including those at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Stanford.

You can get it here:
efficientacademicwriter.carrd.co

ChatGPT is notorious for "hallucianting" or making things up. So, I wanted to see if its answers are accurate or not.

I went to the Excel sheet and looked up how many times the writer Kishwar Naheed's had appeared — 9 times.

ChatGPT's answer was 9 too. Correct.

I raised the stakes a bit and asked ChatGPT to give me a table that shows how many times every speaker has appeared during the period.

ChatGPT gave me a table and said that the complete table is too large to display.

So, I asked ChatGPT to create a CSV file of the table.

And here is the CSV file that ChatGPT created for me.

Extremely helpful and efficient.

You can also ask ChatGPT to create graphs for you.

I asked it create a graph for yearly attendance and another to compare the number of English and Urdu sessions during the festivals.

Final words: AI powered tools are here to stay. Start learning about them. The demand for AI skills is only going to increase in the future.

Found this tutorial helpful?

1. Scroll to the top and retweet the first tweet to share it with your friends.

2. Bookmark it so you can come back to it later.

3. Follow me for regular threads on how to use AI apps for academic purposes.

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More from @MushtaqBilalPhD

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Jan 5

How to build an academic writing habit (to write a lot and publish a lot):

In his book "Atomic Habits," James Clear writes about habits that are so small we don’t even notice them, but the power they have over us is immense.

He calls them atomic habits.

Although they are small, building atomic habits is VERY DIFFICULT.

Why?

Clear calls the time between the point we start a habit to the point we start seeing its first results "the plateau of latent potential."

Most people remain stuck within this plateau.

To see the results of any habit, we must cross the plateau of latent potential.

Read 21 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 25, 2025

Don't use Sci-Hub — it's a "controversial" website with 84M+ research papers freely available.

We should all try to make billion-dollar academic publishers richer.

Anyway, here's a thread on how to integrate Sci-Hub with Zotero to get free papers.

🚨DO NOT DO IT!

1. Don't go to this link:
github(dot)com/syt2/zotero-scipdf

But if you do, replace the word "dot" with an actual [.]

Don't scroll down and click on "latest release xpi file."

This will download an "xpi" file to your computer.

2. Don't open your Zotero. But if you do, click on "Tools."

In "Tools," click on "Plugins." This will open Zotero's Plugin Manager.

In the Plugin Manager, click on the gear-like icon and select "Install Plugin From File."

Navigate to the XPI file you downloaded and add it.

Read 6 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 24, 2025

10 books to help you become a better academic writer so you can write a lot and publish a lot:

1. Academic Writing as if the Reader Matters by Leonard Cassuto

Practical tips on how to make your academic writing more engaging and readable. Examples from the arts and sciences.

2. The Clockwork Muse by Eviatar Zerubavel

Helpful advice on how to organize your writing process in terms of time.

A-Time: for writing new material (deep work)
B-Time: for shallow work like compiling bibliography, etc.
C-Time: for house chores

3. Write Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day by Joan Bolker

Excellent tips on how and why you should write zero drafts.

Teaches you how to understand different stages of the writing process from ideation to drafting to revision.

Read 11 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 15, 2025

Dr Ally Louks's viral PhD thesis (130M views) on the politics of smell redefined the way people talk about smell.

Everyone wants to read her thesis, but it's unavailable until 2028

Here are 10 books on the politics of smell that you can read right now:

1. The Smell of Slavery

1. The Smell of Slavery by Andrew Kettler

Shows how white slave owners defined Black, African bodies as noxious and deserving of enslavement.

Smell was used to dehumanize Black folks who were equated with animals by white slave owners.

2. The Foul and the Fragrant by Alain Corbin

Considered a foundational text in smell studies.

Shows how the bourgeois nose associated bad smells with the poor and how deodorization became a tool for state control in 18th and 19th century France.

Read 11 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 2, 2025

Getting past peer review is a challenge every researcher faces.

Stanford researchers recently launched a free AI-powered Agentic Review that can help you with it.

It gives you a human-level mock peer review so you can polish your paper before submitting it.

Check it out 👇

1. Go to paperreview[.]ai and upload your manuscript.

Enter your email and specify your target venue (conference or journal).

You may also want to copy the "Review Token" in case you don't receive an email.

2. A few minutes later you will receive an email with a link to the review report.

Go through the review report and revise your paper according to the suggestions you think are most relevant.

Read 4 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Oct 6, 2025

Libgen, Sci-Hub, and Z-library had millions of pirated academic books and papers.

So, they were shut down. We shouldn't use them anyway.

We should help billion-dollar academic publishers get richer.

Anyway, here's how to access these libraries:

Don't do this!

1. Don't go to open-slum[.]org.

Because there you will see links to LibGen, Anna's Archive, Z-Library, and Sci-Hub.

2. Don't click any link because that will open your desired library.

Don't type the title of a book you want to read because it might show up.

Look at this, someone has pirated my own book. I'm livid!