Dhaka, June 30 -- A long time ago-at least according to Plato-a conversation between a god and a king still echoes today. In his Phaedrus, Plato tells the story of Theuth, the Egyptian god of invention, who presented King Thamus with a gift, the written word. Theuth believed it would make people wiser and improve memory. But Thamus wasn't impressed. He said, no, this new skill would produce forgetfulness, not memory.

People would look bright, sure-but only because they'd stop remembering and start depending on what was written. It would give them the illusion of knowledge, not the real thing.

It's oddly familiar, especially now that artificial intelligence is being folded into research everywhere-from literature reviews to lab analysis....