Artificial intelligence: a new era in editing academic and popular science writing

The article, based on Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine, examines the prospects for applying generative artificial intelligence (using ChatGPT as an example) in encyclopedia studies, particularly for enhancing the efficiency of editors in preparing encyclopedic content. It emphasizes that ChatGPT can serve as a valuable assistant to the editor, especially through its ability to analyze author manuscripts, identify shortcomings, gaps, and inaccuracies, verify facts and statistical data, and suggest linguistic and stylistic improvements. A separate focus is placed on the compositional organization of the encyclopedic article’s text (its division into structural elements, including paragraphs) even though such structuring is absent in many reference works. The paper stresses that articles divided into paragraphs or sections are more likely to be read and, consequently, are of greater practical value. ChatGPT has the potential to provide such structural organization in encyclopedic publications, particularly their online versions (although certain risks must be taken into account). The same capabilities of artificial intelligence can also be applied by editorial teams during the preparation of new articles.