I discovered STORM a few weeks ago, but it has quickly become one of my favorite ai tools.
Designed by computer scientists at Stanford University, STORM creates academic-style articles on any topic in minutes, complete with citations. These chapters essentially function as Wikipedia-type pages that you can generate on demand. This does STORM a wonderful tool to find research resources. It's perfect for educators pursuing their own advanced degrees or conducting their own research, and I imagine it could be useful for some students as well, although I haven't used it with my students yet due to the common privacy concerns around intelligence tools. artificial.
Of course, as with any ai platform, STORM's capabilities have limitations. Use it enough and you can see that most stories follow the same template, which can lead to oversimplification of topics and is annoying to read. I also had trouble getting it specific enough; really likes to give an overview. For example, STORM had no problem giving me an overview of the research and debate around ai chatbots in education, but I couldn't get it to really summarize. only research on this topic that used randomized control trials.
Despite these areas where it could benefit from improvements, STORM has become one of my favorite ai toolsand I started using it for my own research projects.
Here you will find everything you need to know about STORM.
<h2 id="what-is-storm-ai-3″>What is STORM ai?
STORM is an artificial intelligence tool designed by computer scientists at Stanford University to generate Wikipedia-like entries in a matter of minutes. STORM stands for Synthesis of Topic Schemas through Retrieval and Asking Questions from Multiple Perspectives.
The tool works, in part, by creating a dialogue between different chatbots on the topic you choose. A fascinating feature is that while your article is being written, STORM gives you the option to watch machines exchange ideas and have these conversations. It's creepy and intriguing at the same time.
What are the best features of STORM?
STORM's best feature is exactly what you'd expect: it's great for instantly generating a lot of general information on any topic. For example, I asked him to write me a story about the predictive power of ai tools and he quickly retrieved links to sources I had never heard of, helping me gain a new understanding of the overall topic. All of this happened more quickly than if I had tried to obtain this information through traditional methods.
When I asked him to summarize the research on ai chatbots in education, he provided me with a glossary of terminology and the different types of chatbots used. When I check ChatGPT or Bard, I often find that the answers are simply mediocre summaries of the top Google results, as if you had searched on Google yourself. STORM goes further into topics and finds sources that would take me a long time to find on my own.
What are some of the limitations of STORM?
As I mentioned at the beginning, STORM articles seem to follow a formula. In several of the stories I generated, I would talk about how great something was, but then use the phrase “it's not without its challenges.” In addition to being annoying from a stylistic perspective, this casts some doubt on its accuracy. For example, while the STORM article acknowledged the good and bad sides of ai chatbot tutors, my own view of the research was less optimistic than that presented by this ai tool.
Perhaps most significantly, I couldn't get it as specific as I wanted. I've written about several studies on the effectiveness of ai chatbots and wanted to know more about the randomized control trials (studies that compare two randomly assigned groups of students) that have been conducted. Even when I asked STORM to summarize just the randomized control trials, they responded with a more general story detailing some of the challenges around this type of research and the advantages of this type of research. I already knew this and was looking for a more granular summary of this type of research, but couldn't get it.
How do I use STORM?
To use STORM, navigate to storm.genie.stanford.edu. STORM is free, but users must create an account or link to STORM through an existing Google account.
After signing in, users are taken to a home page. Here the tool requests two indications. One is the title of the article you want to generate. The other is a dialog box that asks you to explain the purpose of the article.
As with other ai tools, adjusting the wording of your message can create different types of results. Once you complete both boxes you will be able to generate the story in three minutes.
Before the story is generated, an option will appear to view the “BrainSTORMing” process. It's not necessary to watch, but I recommend it as it can be a fascinating look at the way STORM generates content through dialogue between ai agents.
