From academic publication to podcast: researchers explore how to disseminate science with AI financial aid

Researchers, doctoral students and science communication professionals quotation this Wednesday in the workshop"Communicating science with the financial aid of artificial intelligence", organized by the Unit for Scientific Culture and Innovation (UCC+I) of the University of Navarra, with the sponsorship the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) - Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. The event brought together more than 65 registrants interested in exploring how AI can facilitate the knowledge dissemination of their science.

The workshop, held on the Pamplona campus , took a practical approach to transforming scientific articles into understandable and attractive content for general audiences. Throughout the morning, participants worked with artificial intelligence tools to generate informative texts, threads for social networks, podcasts and scripts for short videos.

"AI gives you coherent answers, but it can also score coherent 'goals' if you don't know how to interpret what it gives you back," warned Ignacio López-Goñi, Full Professor of Microbiology and director of the UCC+I at the University of Navarra, who insisted on the need to form scientific criteria to evaluate the information generated by these tools.

Bienvenido León, researcher in Science Communication at the School of Communication, explained the keys to writing effective prompts -the instructions given to AI systems- and obtaining quality results. However, he warned of "the possible biases that exist in the answers we get, and that is why it is essential not to delegate critical thinking".

AI to disseminate science in new formats

The program was structured in two blocks. In the first part, they worked from the scientific article to divulgative text formats and social networks. During this internship session, tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Notebook LM were analyzed and compared, which the researchers test to evaluate their usefulness in synthesis, creativity and content production tasks. Beyond establishing a favorite, the importance of knowing how each tool works and selecting the most appropriate one for each purpose and channel was highlighted.

The second block focused on the production of accessible and attractive audiovisual formats designed to connect with wider audiences through social networks or other digital platforms. The participants created podcasts and short videos based on the scientific article they worked on, guided by prompts that facilitated the writing of scripts and the selection of narrative resources. Using platforms such as InVideo, ElevenLabs or Adobe Podcast, they explored how the use of music, sound effects, images and synthetic voices can help connect with wider audiences without losing scientific rigor. The experience underlined the potential of AI as an ally in knowledge dissemination, as well as the need for critical thinking at every step of the creative process.

The workshop concluded with a recapitulation in which the core topic learnings were shared: how to use AI as an ally in scientific knowledge dissemination , without losing critical judgment, and how to adapt the message and format to the subject of the audience, from the general public to the youngest.