Wieczorek Maud, Kliegel Matthias, Beard John, Guillemin Francis, Avendano Mauricio, Maurer Jürgen
Swiss Centre of Expertise in Life Course Research LIVES, Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland.
Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC), University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
J Aging Soc Policy. 2025;37(4):531-546. doi: 10.1080/08959420.2024.2422669. Epub 2024 Nov 4.
The multifaceted implications of global population aging require regular assessments of the current state of aging-related social science research and the identification of potential future research priorities in this important area. Given the multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary nature of this field, such assessments typically require the involvement of experts from diverse backgrounds to ensure a comprehensive picture and to synthesize understudied and newly emerging topics into a future research agenda. We explored to what extent ChatGPT (version GPT-4, OpenAI) might be a useful tool for synthesizing the current state of research and identifying promising future research areas, which could feed into expert panel discussions for priority setting. ChatGPT proposed a long list of topics and specific research questions that are useful in summarizing current views on research priorities across diverse sources. To illustrate, the top five priorities for future aging research identified by ChatGPT were digital integration, climate change and older populations, mental health and aging, aging in diverse contexts, and post-pandemic aging. In conclusion, ChatGPT may be a useful tool for identifying research agenda priorities across organizations present in the web, but the lack of transparency requires that experts critically evaluate the values and views underlying selected priorities.
全球人口老龄化的多方面影响需要定期评估与老龄化相关的社会科学研究现状，并确定这一重要领域未来潜在的研究重点。鉴于该领域具有多学科、跨学科和超学科的性质，此类评估通常需要不同背景的专家参与，以确保全面了解情况，并将研究不足和新出现的主题整合到未来的研究议程中。我们探讨了ChatGPT（OpenAI的GPT-4版本）在多大程度上可能是一个有用的工具，用于综合当前的研究状况并确定有前景的未来研究领域，从而为专家小组的优先级设定讨论提供参考。ChatGPT提出了一长串主题和具体研究问题，这些对于总结不同来源关于研究优先级的当前观点很有用。举例来说，ChatGPT确定的未来老龄化研究的前五大优先事项是数字融合、气候变化与老年人口、心理健康与老龄化、不同背景下的老龄化以及疫情后老龄化。总之，ChatGPT可能是一个有用的工具，用于识别网络中各组织的研究议程优先级，但缺乏透明度要求专家批判性地评估所选优先级背后的价值观和观点。
