Finally, An AI Research Tool that Works

Make ChatGPT's Deep Research Mode Your Private Research Department

I know that as writers, we have concerns about generative AI programs like ChatGPT. Personally, when it comes to writing, only mediocre writers doing hack writing jobs have anything to fear. AI generates generic copy. It’s good for routine emails or Amazon book summaries. It certainly isn’t ready for prime time with anything requiring creative thought or a surprising turn of phrase.

However, I find myself using it for a variety of writing-related chores. Sometimes, I will bounce ideas off the chatbot as a type of interactive brainstorming with someone who will not make fun of my crazy ideas.

Other times, I use it for routine writing chores, like when I need to provide a bio for a guest blog article. I hate writing about myself. Also, it is a great alternative to programs like Grammarly because it doesn’t just correct errors; it creates an entirely new document from what you wrote and reproduces it following spelling, punctuation, and grammar conventions. You just have to be careful with the wording of the prompt and instruct it not to change the wording except when it is grammatically incorrect.

However, until recently, one thing I did not do was use it for research. LLMs (large language models) are notorious for “hallucinating” or just making up stuff. And in the default mode, I still won’t use it that way.

A new function for ChatGPTPlus and above subscribers ($20/Month), Deep Research, finally provides a mostly reliable source for detailed research. This program searches the web, gathers data, and summarizes it in a detailed research report, complete with links to the source materials. In that sense, it is like having your own research department on your desktop.

The result is about as interesting as the Encyclopedia Britannica. The writing is generic but clear and easy to read. It will analyze and summarize the topic. You can be very detailed with your prompt.

This week, I’m working on writing a Bible study series on the book of Esther. I am familiar with the book, but I wanted more depth about the cultural/historical setting, themes in the book, some critical analysis, and searching commentaries. I could do all that online myself. It would take me several hours if not days.

So, I turned over the task to ChatGPT in Deep Research mode. Here’s the prompt I used.

Chat, please create a detailed analysis of the Book of Esther in the Bible. Include a discussion of the historical context as well as cultural elements of the time and place. Include a detailed outline of the book and a discussion of the spiritual themes.

Before it began its analysis, it asked me a question:

Before I begin, would you like the analysis to include discussions of different scholarly interpretations (such as Jewish, Christian, and secular perspectives), or should it focus on a specific religious tradition? Also, do you prefer a literary analysis in addition to the historical and theological elements, or should I focus more on the historical and spiritual aspects?

I was surprised at this. But it is exactly the sort of question I would ask if someone hired me to prepare a research report. I responded:

Focus primarily from the Christian and Jewish perspectives. And yes, a literary analysis would be interesting. I want to focus mostly on the spiritual aspects, but understanding those often requires an understanding of the historical context. I would also like to see the spiritual themes discussed within the context of other Biblical materials. Provide specific references with Book, chapter, and verse. Biblical quotations should be from the King James Bible.

Then chat reviewed what I wanted:

I will prepare a detailed analysis of the Book of Esther, focusing primarily on Christian and Jewish perspectives. This will include a discussion of the historical and cultural context, a detailed outline of the book, and an exploration of its literary structure. I will also provide an in-depth examination of its spiritual themes, connecting them with other Biblical texts (citing the King James Bible). I will let you know when the analysis is ready for your review.

It took eight minutes for the program to consult 23 sources and produce a 40-page report. I checked the sources and found no hallucinations, no misinformation, and no dead links. This is a big improvement over using earlier and even current lower-reliability versions. Although, those are getting better.

As the program was working, in a panel on the right, it listed the sources it was consulting along with their links. Also, it produced a works cited page at the end. Not quite APA style, but it's enough for you to do deeper research on your own.

I will not reproduce any of this by copying and pasting. It isn’t up to my quality of writing skill. Sorry if that sounds conceited, but I’ve been writing professionally for a half century. I have a few skills, not to mention humanity, that Chat still doesn’t have. However, this report saved me hours of research. Additionally, it introduced me to some themes that I hadn’t noticed in the book. For instance, the theme of “God in Hiding.” God is never mentioned by name in the book, but his hand is seen everywhere. There are no miracles in the book. God uses submitted human beings to bring about the salvation of his people. These are themes I would not have considered, and now they will be lessons in my Bible study.

This is not available to the free users. If you have ChatGPTPlus you can use it, but there is a limit of just 10 deep researches per month. If you want unlimited use, you have to move to the Pro plan at $200 a month. But this is not something most of us would use regularly.

There is another alternative if you don’t need that type of depth. That is using ChatGPT search. I’m using this a lot more than Google now. You can phrase your search in natural language like a prompt. You will get a short research report complete with links followed by a machine-curated list of websites. And you don’t (at this time) have to plow through a dozen “sponsored” links.

While we should never use ChatGPT for any significant writing assignment requiring human emotion, analysis, reason, and personality, Chat can be a valuable assistant for the writer. Not a substitute, but an able assistant. Deep research has made that assistant even more valuable.

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