You should choose your own topic, but lets argue for this example that you have been tasked to write a paper on machine learning $($ML$)$ and sales. You have been given the following scenario:

The CEO of a moderately large software company with sales in $15$ international markets is thinking of adopting ML based vendor products to assist in sales $.$ The CEO has been increasingly aware of articles and vendors claiming that machine learning $($ML$)$ and other AI are revolutionizing sales, and ChatGPT examples seem to be everywhere. While they know some of their competitors use it$,$ they have no idea of how it works. You need to explain the various types of artificial intelligence, and how they could be used.

Given that you don$$t know much about this, you will need to do some research on this topic. Remember, this assignment will require you to document the search process you use in order to find relevant information, not write the paper on machine learning$/$AI$.$

Your first task: decide what information you really need in order to properly evaluate this idea.

Step $1$: Identify the information needed.

There are many possible uses of machine learning and AI$,$ form abstract to concrete implementations. You are interested in both a high level technical understanding of how it works and also how it connects to theories about sales$/$selling$,$ so you should define several questions to answer. You should identify the information needed for your chosen topic $($which can be an assignment from another class$).$

Deliverable: section one of your paper should define the most important topics or questions you think you need to understand for this assignment.

Step $2$: Search for Information using $3$ methods: Search engine, library database, and ChatGPT

Now that you have specific topics $/$ questions, it$$s time to search for information.

Step $2\mathrm{.}1$: use a search engine like google.

Decide on an initial set of keyword searches. Use them, and then evaluate your results. Then refine them based on your results, and try again. Repeat until you feel you have high quality sources.

Explain the specific search terms you used, and how you refined them as you went along

Explain how the initial information you found and read influenced your search strategy

Provide a copy of the best article or information source you located in each of your topic areas $($a citation or link is sufficient as long as it is available online, otherwise include a copy in an appendix$).$

Explain why it was the most useful resource you found $($refer to criteria in the slides on information search$).$

Make sure you cover both internet and database searches.

Make sure you document this process.

Step $2\mathrm{.}2$: use the library databases.

Go through the same process again, using the library database search tool. Document your process as you go$.$

Step $2\mathrm{.}3$: use generative A$.$I.

Go through the same process again, this time using a generative AI program like ChatGPT or Bard. Document your process as you go$.$

Deliverable: section two of your paper should describe the search refinement process for all $3$ methods. Makre sure you document search terms $/$ strategies.

Step $3$: Reflection and Evaluation

In this section you should reflect on the overall process, and the lessons you learned that you will implement in future when you search for information.

Which method gave you the best results? Which took the most effort to get good results? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?

Note, $$I found what I was looking for straight away so I didn't need to refine anything$$ is not an acceptable assertion for any of the methods here. You need to show that you tried other strategies and were satisfied in the end that the first was the best.

Describe your satisfaction with your overall search process, and describe how you would tweak it going forward when doing business research. The point of the assignment is to get better at searching as a process.

What do you feel you learned from going through this process?

Deliverable: section three of your paper should discuss how successful your process was, and how you would improve it in future.

There is no maximum limit on this paper but a minimum limit would be approximately $3$ single spaced pages $($not including references$/$appendices$).$ Because you are explaining process, it may be quite a bit longer $($for instance if you describe all the keywords you used and how you changed them over time, particularly if you use bullet points$).$ The goal is to fully describe the process you used, to reflect on what you learned from the exercise, and describe the lessons you will carry forward. Please use $($sub$)$ section headers as indicated.

Use APA as your standard when you cite references.