\u201c[T]oday\u2019s technology is valued \u2014 culturally and financially \u2014 based on how much it\u2019s used by the most privileged members of our society.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is the case with AI, as it has been used by employers to screen applicants, by large tech companies to serve as the new reference desk, and, perhaps most egregiously, by the government to identify and arrest suspects. This is problematic because AI hiring tools can perpetuate racism (Bommasani et al., 2026<\/a>), Google\u2019s AI overview provides inaccurate content and sources that don\u2019t corroborate the information (Mickle et al., 2026<\/a>), and people of racial minorities have been incorrectly identified and wrongly arrested because of facial recognition technology (Liang, 2026<\/a>).<\/p>\n AI also affects women and men differently. In a 2025 report, the UN estimated that women are 2\u20133 times as likely to be in the jobs at greatest risk of being replaced by AI, especially in high-income countries (Gmyrek et al., 2025, p. 43\u201344<\/a>). Research has also shown that women are less likely to use AI, not necessarily due to lack of access, however, but due to other factors such as perceived usefulness, institutional support, social legitimacy, and trust\/privacy\/risk concerns (Cranney et al., 2025<\/a>).<\/p>\n Some argue that the fix is to ensure equal access to AI. After all, awareness of AI in everyday activities correlates to levels of education, income, and internet use, per Pew research (Kennedy et al., 2023<\/a>). Cranney et al.\u2019s conclusion was most concerned with increasing women\u2019s usage of AI so they don\u2019t fall behind in their careers and so that they can participate more in AI development. When asked about AI during the Fall 2025 \u201cAsk Me Anything,\u201d then-director of the SJSU iSchool Anthony Chow also said, \u201cIt\u2019s our job to really debunk any fears about AI,\u201d though the fears he emphasized were more about not knowing how to use new tools (Winslow, 2025, 00:24:25\u201300:27:08<\/a>).<\/p>\n The issue is much more complex, especially when public attitudes toward AI in the U.S. have become increasingly negative throughout the years despite increased usage: data privacy is a major concern; majorities of Americans have low confidence in both government regulation and corporate responsibility (Tyson & Kikuchi, 2023<\/a>; Kennedy et al., 2025<\/a>; Gottfried et al., 2026<\/a>). Though these are just sentiments, we\u2019ve already seen concrete ways AI has perpetuated systemic oppression, in the first paragraph. These issues will not go away once everyone uses AI. These issues are not for librarians to \u201cdebunk.\u201d<\/p>\n Honestly, I don\u2019t know what role libraries can play beyond fostering community and literacy. But I do know that literacy goes beyond simply knowing how to use a tool. In the meantime, I hope that we can help the public think more critically amidst all the misinformation and slop that AI has helped proliferate (PBS, 2025<\/a>) and find ways to decentralize our technological needs.<\/p>\n Bommasani, R., Bana, S. H., Creel, K. A., Jurafsky, D., Liang, P. (2026, May 26). AI hiring tools can yield racial bias and systemic rejection. Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI<\/i>.\u00a0 https:\/\/hai.stanford.edu\/news\/ai-hiring-tools-can-yield-racial-bias-and-systemic-rejection<\/a><\/p>\n boyd, d. (2016, January 25). What world are we building? Data & Society: Points<\/i>. https:\/\/medium.com\/datasociety-points\/what-world-are-we-building-9978495dd9ad<\/a><\/p>\n Cranney, K., Delecourt, S., & Konin, R. (2026, May). Global evidence on gender gaps and generative AI over time<\/i> [working paper]. Harvard Business School. https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/ris\/Publication%20Files\/25-023_be8fb517-3dd5-40aa-97f9-4e42e1c8e6ff.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n Gmyrek, P., Berg, J., Kami\u0144ski, K., Konopczy\u0144ski, F., \u0141adna, A., Nafradi, B., Ros\u0142aniec, K., Troszy\u0144ski, M. (2025, May). Generative AI and jobs: A refined global index of occupational exposure<\/i> [working paper]. International Labour Organization. https:\/\/www.ilo.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2025-05\/WP140_web.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n Gottfried, J., Bishop, W., Anderson, M., Faverio, M., Park, E., & McClain, C. (2026, June 17). Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, smart devices and views on impact<\/i>. Pew Research Center. https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/internet\/2026\/06\/17\/americans-and-ai-2026-chatbots-smart-devices-and-views-on-impact<\/a><\/p>\n Kennedy, B., Tyson, A., & Saks, E. (2023, February 15). Public awareness of artificial intelligence in everyday activities<\/i>. Pew Research Center. https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/science\/2023\/02\/15\/public-awareness-of-artificial-intelligence-in-everyday-activities<\/a><\/p>\n Kennedy, B., Yam, E., Kikuchi, E., Pula, I., & Fuentes, J. (2025, September 17). How Americans view AI and its impact on people and society<\/i>. Pew Research Center. https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/science\/2025\/09\/17\/how-americans-view-ai-and-its-impact-on-people-and-society<\/a><\/p>\n Liang, G. (2026, May 30). In the image of injustice: A critical examination of AI, surveillance, and systemic racism in the United States. Race and Justice<\/i>. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/21533687261455743<\/a><\/p>\n Mickle, T., Metz, C., Freedman, D., Terol, T. M., & Collins, K. (2026, April 7). How accurate are Google\u2019s A.I. Overviews? New York Times<\/i>. https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/07\/technology\/google-ai-overviews-accuracy.html<\/a><\/p>\n PBS. (2025, October 23). What is \u2018AI slop\u2019 and how does it affect users? \u00a0<\/b>https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/classroom\/daily-news-lessons\/2025\/10\/critics-warn-of-ai-misinformation<\/a><\/p>\n Tyson, A., & Kikuchi, E. (2023, August 28). Growing public concern about the role of artificial intelligence in daily life<\/i>. Pew Research Center. https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2023\/08\/28\/growing-public-concern-about-the-role-of-artificial-intelligence-in-daily-life<\/a><\/p>\n Winslow, B. (2025, September 3). FA25 Director\u2019s Ask Me Anything<\/i> [YouTube video]. https:\/\/youtu.be\/b9w1yBe7PsU<\/a><\/p>\n<\/details>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Going through the Pew research and AI readings in the Hyperlinked Environments module, I kept thinking back to one line from danah boyd\u2019s \u201cWhat World Are We Building?\u201d from the previous module: \u201c[T]oday\u2019s technology is valued \u2014 culturally and financially \u2014 based on how much it\u2019s used by the most privileged members of our society.\u201d … Continue reading Hyperlinked Environments Reflection: Fears about AI<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":822,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/anitayjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/anitayjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/anitayjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/anitayjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/822"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/anitayjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/anitayjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/anitayjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions\/64"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/anitayjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/anitayjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/anitayjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"http:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/anitayjc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/548\/2026\/07\/bsky-post-women-using-ai-290x300.png\")
<\/a>References<\/strong> (click to expand<\/em>)<\/summary>\n