Show HN: AI tools for high lvl researchers who need assistance – not answers (opens in new tab)

High-level researchers and published academics don't want hallucinated work and already have the skills to complete their tasks. Current AI platforms and agents are both untrustworthy (hallucinating) or ineffective due to low PDF interactivity (cannot edit drafts, insert quotes, or highlight text in files), which means AI tools become useless at the highest level. We are sad to see academic databases flooded with LLM-assisted papers and an apparent decrease in creativity at the highest level of discovery (we suspect through over-reliance on AI oracles like ChatGPT).

We do not believe that Vibing is productive and hope to help minimize Vibe anything. Research is not disposable and should not be treated as another thing to automate; instead, we should build AI tools that help build critical thinking and creativity in humans.

So what is Ubik?

Ubik is the first AI Research Environment (AiRE): just like an IDE (coding) or a DAW (music production), Ubik is an environment for high-level research and deep knowledge work. Rather than quick/vague generation, Ubik agents can be contextually locked into PDFs added to chat. Like Cursor, all files and AI items can be referenced while prompting using the @ symbol. Search, analyze, and cite papers found in ArXiv and Semantic Scholar. Generate text with citation, and build a knowledge base that amplifies human intelligence instead of replacing it.

If you think this sounds like a helpful tool, go check it out and lmk what you think - Ubik will be free until 2026 :3

We are testing our custom-built EVAL suite and currently scoring above 90% on standard PDF EVALs and will be publishing soon <3