4 days ago
Deep research with AI is days' worth of work in minutes
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Mala Bhargava In-depth information and knowledge is yours for the asking and it can help with countless scenarios in everyday life. Paid versions give much better results—more extensive information with less 'hallucination' and errors. Gift this article
Many users haven't realized it, but they've never had it so good with in-depth information so readily available. Practically all the AI assistants that are rapidly gaining popularity with regular users today offer deep research, even with the free tiers of their apps.
Many users haven't realized it, but they've never had it so good with in-depth information so readily available. Practically all the AI assistants that are rapidly gaining popularity with regular users today offer deep research, even with the free tiers of their apps.
Paid versions give much better results—more extensive information with less 'hallucination' and errors—but even the free deep dives can be quite worthwhile. My favourite for this purpose is Google's Gemini, with ChatGPT a close second, and Grok 3 a close third.
The first time I prompt-requested deep research and received the results, I couldn't quite believe all I had to do was ask to get such a comprehensive well-structured report. Ever since I discovered it, I seem to be addicted to deep research and use it almost every day for something or the other.
Just recently, a friend in the US shocked me by telling me she was taking 2 grammes of the diabetes medicine, Metformin, per day, despite being pre-diabetic. The medication has such side effects that I couldn't understand how it could be prescribed at such a high dose for someone who was not yet diabetic.
I decided to get some information on the use of Metformin for pre-diabetics and asked for an in-depth report. I specified in my prompt that it should be simple and not filled with medical jargon or terms. I got one in a matter of minutes, and it was perfectly understandable. I was surprised to learn that the drug is actually given to overweight people who are potentially diabetic. All the same, considering my friend had intense gastric side effects, I passed on the report to her and suggested she use it to ask her doctor if there were better alternatives. Also Read | How will AI impact India's white-collar job market?
I requested reports for my medications, as it's a good idea to be well informed about what one is taking regularly. I gave the reports to my doctor, who said she would love them in simple Hindi. That was easy enough. She now uses them with her patients. A hacks for everyday life scenarios
Deep research is so useful that it's an immediately visible feature in all the AI assistants. While it sounds like something meant for academics, I find it's been useful for so many everyday life scenarios. It's easy enough to see how it could be useful at work. I gave someone a full fleshed-out plan on how to hire an Instagram account manager. The report was truly comprehensive, with information on everything from what qualities to look for to what one can expect to pay.
You can get a deep research report on the latest news in your field of work, or an industry snapshot or market status for an area of interest. From best practices to price comparisons, from strategies to future potential, the information is packaged in a shockingly short time. If you were to manually look for the information, it would take hours or even days.
Amazingly, you can even research a person if that individual is prominent enough online. This could come in useful if you're, say, trying to hire and want to verify claims made in a CV.
In your personal life, too, deep research can make life easier. A comparison of fridge models when you want to buy one. A detailed description of a place you are planning to visit, including cultural notes and how to prepare for a stay there. With Google's Gemini, there's the additional benefit of being able to get the report in a neat package that can be immediately shared, sent to Google Docs, or converted to an audio overview so you can listen to a shorter version of the report while doing other things, if you like.
Some of the more odd things I've got reports on include how to stop myself from singing nasally, how to perform soleus push-ups, and the making of the aircraft HA300, which my father test-flew in Egypt.
The best part of deep research is how you can query and customize results. You can ask for a summary, a set of bullet points, content for slides, simpler language, another language, a different tone… Also Read | How to build AI literacy and become a power user
Of course, AI is notorious for making errors and dreaming up content. Just this morning, Grok referred to US President Donald Trump as the 'former US president'. But the good news is that this tendency is much less in research reports. There's no user interaction to encourage the AI assistant to be sycophantic and make up data.
All the same, the more critical the information, the more important it is to cross-check whatever looks wrong. The sources are given, and in some cases, citations are given with each chunk of information. Checking is a little tedious, but it beats doing the whole thing yourself over days.
The New Normal: The world is at an inflexion point. Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to be as massive a revolution as the Internet has been. The option to just stay away from AI will not be available to most people, as all the tech we use takes the AI route. This column series introduces AI to the non-techie in an easy and relatable way, aiming to demystify and help a user to actually put the technology to good use in everyday life.
Mala Bhargava is most often described as a 'veteran' writer who has contributed to several publications in India since 1995. Her domain is personal tech, and she writes to simplify and demystify technology for a non-techie audience. Topics You May Be Interested In Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
