“So what if ChatGPT wrote it?” Multidisciplinary perspectives on opportunities, challenges and implications of generative conversational AI for research, practice and policy

Transformative artificially intelligent tools, such as ChatGPT, designed to generate sophisticated text indistinguishable from that produced by a human, are applicable across a wide range of contexts. The technology presents opportunities as well as, often ethical and legal, challenges, and has the potential for both positive and negative impacts for organisations, society, and individuals. Offering multi-disciplinary insight into some of these, this article brings together 43 contributions from experts in fields such as computer science, marketing, information systems, education, policy, hospitality and tourism, management, publishing, and nursing. The contributors acknowledge ChatGPT’s capabilities to enhance productivity and suggest that it is likely to offer significant gains in the banking, hospitality and tourism, and information technology industries, and enhance business activities, such as management and marketing. Nevertheless, they also consider its limitations, disruptions to practices, threats to privacy and security, and consequences of biases, misuse, and misinformation. However, opinion is split on whether ChatGPT’s use should be restricted or legislated. Drawing on these contributions, the article identifies questions requiring further research across three thematic areas: knowledge, transparency, and ethics; digital transformation of organisations and societies; and teaching, learning, and scholarly research. The avenues for further research include: identifying skills, resources, and capabilities needed to handle generative AI; examining biases of generative AI attributable to training datasets and processes; exploring business and societal contexts best suited for generative AI implementation; determining optimal combinations of human and generative AI for various tasks; identifying ways to assess accuracy of text produced by generative AI; and uncovering the ethical and legal issues in using generative AI across different contexts

Salinity–pH Relationships in Calcareous Soils

Soil pH is the most commonly requested analysis undertaken during farm advisory work. Determination of pH assists in understanding many reactions that occur in soil. Variations in pH between soils have been related to a number of other soil parameters. In this study thirty different soils were collected from agricultural areas to have a wide range of pH, salinity, and texture. The objective was to study the relationship between soil pH and salinity. A negative relationship was found between soil salinity and pH. The main factor contributing to this relationship was probably the presence of soluble Ca2+ ion in soil. Variations in soluble Ca2+ ion concentrations between soils were negatively related to soil pH and positively related to soil salinity. Other soil properties that may affect pH, including CEC, CaCO3, clay content, gypsum and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), were also determined