Mushtaq Bilal, PhD Profile picture
Mar 28 8 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Google Scholar is useful, but it's stuck in the past.

Ai2 is building a new AI-powered search engine for researchers.

It looks for papers, follows citations, evaluates relevance, runs follow-up queries, and shows you only relevant papers — and it's free:
1. Go to paperfinder.allen(dot)ai/chat and sign up for a free account.

Type in your question and hit Enter/Return.

Ai2 will start a search. It will mimic a human researcher in looking up papers, and then evaluating/ranking them for relevance.
2. Once it's done, Ai2 will give you a list of papers.

Under every paper, it will show you if it's perfectly relevant, relevant, or somewhat relevant to your query.

It will also show you evidence of what makes a paper perferctly or somewhat relevant.
3. If you want Ai2 to expand it's search, simply write "work harder" and it will do the needful.

This is like interacting with an actual human research assistant.
Want to learn more about AI tools for academic writing and research?

I'm doing a 4-hour webinar tomorrow.

2,300+ academics have attended it.

Use "SUPER25" for a 25% discount.

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4. Ai2 can also synthesize available literature on a given topic.

Click on the "Synthesis" box, and type in your question.

Ai2 will go over hundreds of papers, find the most relevant, and synthesize relevant content.
5. Ai2 will then give you a detailed writeup with section headings and references to published papers.

This feature can make your literature review very efficient.
Found this thread on Ai2 helpful?

1. Repost the first post to share it with your friends.

2. Follow me for more threads on how to use AI apps for academic purposes.

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More from @MushtaqBilalPhD

Mar 28
NotebookLM is (probably) the best reading assistant for research papers.

It's free and you can use it to:

• Summarize papers
• Ask question about papers
• Prepare study guides
• Create mind maps
• Generate podcasts based on papers

And it's very easy to use:
1. Go to

Click on "Create new" and upload a paper.

NotebookLM will give you a summary of the paper. notebooklm.google.com
2. You can ask questions about the paper.

It will answer your question with reference to the contents of the paper.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 24
AI generates fake references to research papers that don't even exist.

Google is on course to solve this problem.

Gemini Deep Research generates well-researched articles with references to published sources.

And it's free!

Here's how to use it:
1. Open your Google Gemini and click on "Deep Research."

Type in your question. Gemini will understand your question and create a research plan based on the question.
2. You can edit the research plan.

Click on "Edit plan" and give Gemini additional instructions.

Gemini will revise the research plan.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 23
How to make mind maps for any research paper:

This will take you 5 minutes and you can do it for free. A mind map based on Mushtaq Bilal's paper, "Genre Communities."
1. Go to ChatGPT and upload the paper you want to make a mind map of.

Paste the prompt below and hit Enter/Return. ChatGPT will give you a code block. Copy it.

Prompt:
Act as an expert academic and go through this document very carefully and understand it as best as you can. Based on your understanding, build a mind map in which you organize the document hierarchically into main topics and subtopics.

Once you are done, write markmap.js code for the mind map with nodes organized hierarchically. The mind map should be visually appealing, easy to follow, and should make the document digestible. Don't give me anything other than the markmap.js code.
2. Go to markmap.js[.]org/repl

You will see two columns.

Delete whatever is in the left column and paste the code you copied from ChatGPT.

It will give you mind map. Download it.
Read 6 tweets
Mar 18
One of the biggest challenges while doing a literature review:

How to find common themes across multiple papers and synthesize available information.

Lateral is an AI app that can help you with it.

Best part: It doesn't hallucinate at all.

Here's how to use Lateral:
1. Go to lateral[.]io and sign up for a free account.

Lateral gives you 500 page credits for free.
2. In your Lateral Dashboard, click on "New Project" and type in the name of your project.

You can also choose a project color to color-code your projects.

Then click on "Create and Launch Project."
Read 15 tweets
Mar 15
Finding research gaps takes a lot of time and labor.

Research Kick Start is an AI app that can help you with it.

It analyzes millions of papers in Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, and PubMed to help you find research gaps — in minutes.

Here's how to use it: A screenshot of Research Kick Start showing that a research question has not been adequately answered in published literature.
1. Go to and click on "Get started" to sign up for an account.

You'll need to buy a subscription to use the app. researchkick.com/start
2. Choose an AI model you want to use.

It has latest models including ChatGPT 4.5, Claude 3.7, and Deep Seek.

Type in a few key words related to your research project. Then click on "Generate."

It will generate multiple research questions to help you brainstorm ideas.
Read 10 tweets
Mar 11
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the next big thing in AI.

It lets you integrate academic databases with LLMs.

But most academics don't know about it.

Here's how to connect Claude with PubMed using MCP (in less than 15 min):
1. Go to claude[.]ai/download

Download the Claude desktop app and install it. Claude for Desktop
2. Go to nodejs[.]org

Download and install Node.js Node.js download page
Read 11 tweets

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